Electronic health records can be used to measure and record how guidelines are being implemented and followed, but more government intervention is needed to regulate electronic health records and set standards, Derek Raghavan, MD, PhD, FACP, FRACP, president, Carolinas HealthCare System's Levine Cancer Institute.
Electronic health records can be used to measure and record how guidelines are being implemented and followed, but more government intervention is needed to regulate electronic health records and set standards, Derek Raghavan, MD, PhD, FACP, FRACP, president, Carolinas HealthCare System's Levine Cancer Institute.
Transcript
Once guidelines have been implemented, what strategy should be in place to ensure they are consistently followed?
I think the key is measuring the use of guidelines and the type and patterns of treatment. We now, with all the electronic health records available, have mechanisms to measure what actually happens. Oftentimes, that isn’t done, so it becomes very important for physician leaders, the leader of the pharmacies that supply medications—either to individual practitioners or to group practitioners—to actually work together to measure outcomes, to record outcomes, and to know exactly what is being done.
We’ve had, over the years, a bit of a tendency of what you might call laissez-faire—leaving the people alone, hoping they’ll do the best job they can. And that’s a good implicit concept, but now that we have mechanisms to measure what we’re doing, we need to do that and then to implement those measurements, to understand the results of what we’re doing.
One of the biggest challenges is that so many of the electronic health record systems are so hard to use, they add a lot of working time to the average clinician’s day. And, unfortunately, most of the electronic health records are sold without any measure of government oversight or any requirement for the records to produce what they promise. So, this is going to have to be an area where government gets more actively involved in.
Today, you can sell an electronic health record, as far I know, to anybody. Given that it can have such a big impact on the delivery of healthcare, it’s probably time, in the same way that the physicians and the pharmaceutical industry are being regulated, I think it’s time for the government to start to look at the companies that make electronic health records and set standards of what they need to produce. That, in turn, will allow a much better level of systematization of care.
ATS 2024: Bridging the Past, Present, and Future of Respiratory Care
May 16th 2024The application of artificial intelligence in medicine is anticipated as a highlight of ATS 2024, with sessions exploring its applications in research, radiological interpretation, and pediatric pulmonology.
Read More
Emily Goldberg Shares Insights as a Genetic Counselor for Breast Cancer Risk Screening
October 30th 2023On this episode of Managed Care Cast, Emily Goldberg, MS, CGC, a genetic counselor at JScreen, breaks down how genetic screening for breast cancer works and why it is so important to increase awareness and education around these screening tools available to patients who may be at risk for cancer.
Listen
The Importance of Examining and Preventing Atrial Fibrillation
August 29th 2023At this year’s American Society for Preventive Cardiology Congress on CVD Prevention, Emelia J. Benjamin, MD, ScM, delivered the Honorary Fellow Award Lecture, “The Imperative to Focus on the Prevention of Atrial Fibrillation,” as the recipient of this year’s Honorary Fellow of the American Society for Preventive Cardiology award.
Listen
A new study highlights significant disparity in reimbursement rates across states between hospitals and Medicare; the first patient to receive a genetically modified pig kidney has died; research examines outcomes of over 500 patients receiving medication abortion pills by mail.
Read More
Looking Back on ISPOR 2024: Hot Policy Topics, Welcome Focus on Employers, and More
May 10th 2024Kimberly Westrich, MA, chief strategy officer of the National Pharmaceutical Council, reflects on the most valuable learnings from the 2024 meeting of ISPOR—The Professional Society for Health Economics and Outcomes Research, including lively discussions of the Inflation Reduction Act and workshops on value assessment.
Read More