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Guest Column: Stimulus Includes Cash For Electronic Records

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By ADNANE KHALIL

Special to the Brandon News & Tribune

Published: February 25, 2009

Updated: 02/25/2009 01:02 pm

ADNANE KHALIL

BRANDON - It's an exciting time in history, and an exciting time in my industry.

For more than 15 years, I have utilized and applied information technology to determine how we can provide better health care and healthier outcomes for everyone.

From my time at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to my new position as chief information officer for a medical data-sharing company, I have been witness to some of the amazing ways technology can help make us healthier.

And now, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 signed into law Feb. 17 is poised to provide a $20 billion investment in health technology, with $2 billion to $5 billion earmarked to support electronic medical records for everyone in the U.S.

From a personal perspective, I am a health consumer, just as you are. I have my own health issues. I have a family who needs medical care, and I want the best for them. Having seen how the best health care system might work by utilizing technologies we have today, it's hard to imagine not moving forward.

Imagine taking your child to the emergency room due to a serious fall while on vacation. The doctors are able to access her medical records immediately upon arrival and see her medical history, any recent X-rays and when she received her last tetanus shot.

They take X-rays - adding them into her same medical records so your primary doctor will be able to see them - and determine she has a broken arm. They treat her, and when you return home, your orthopedic surgeon has access to the ER X-rays, even if he has no affiliation with the hospital you visited.

He can read the treating physician's notes, with no need for more X-rays or a trail of paper files.

I don't believe health technology can save all aspects of a failing system, such as high rates of uninsured Americans, duplicate medical tests every time you see a different doctor and skyrocketing insurance costs. But the exchange of health information electronically between physicians, hospitals, health plans and patients has been proven to decrease the cost of care and improve outcomes.

Health information exchanges will offer physicians the ability to analyze data in order to track and better treat chronic conditions such as diabetes or heart disease, monitor for and provide immunizations or early disease screenings and prescribe medications electronically without a written prescription.

Right here in Hillsborough County, we are already getting started through the Tampa Bay Regional Health Information Organization, whose purpose is to design and implement an electronic health information exchange for the region.

It truly is an exciting time.

Adnane Khalil, who lives in Brandon with his wife, Rikki, works for Shared Health, a public/private medical data-sharing company.

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