Posting date: May 25, 2004

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Health Affairs, 10.1377/hlthaff.w4.321
Copyright © 2004 by Project HOPE

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Perspective: How To Succeed In Health Information Technology

¹ Jonathan Javitt is an adjunct senior fellow of the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies in Arlington, Virginia, and an adjunct professor of the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland. In 2003 he was appointed by President George W. Bush to the President’s Information Technology Advisory Committee, whose Health Subcommittee he chairs. He serves as senior adviser to the chairman of First Consulting Group Inc., chief medical adviser to the Patient Safety Institute, and chief scientific adviser to Active Health Management.

^*Corresponding author.

Abstract

The United States is poised to move the debate over electronic information systems for health care beyond the question of whether to computerize to how to computerize. Developers should heed the experiences of those who have already attempted similar efforts in vertically integrated environments. A key lesson is that the expertise and design perspectives of IT professionals should be supplemented with practical input from the caregivers and administrators who will actually use these systems. The paper by Douglas Bell and colleagues offers a ray of hope, as these authors have begun their process by asking the user community exactly what it needs.

Key Words: Business Of Health, Consumer Issues, Internet And Health, Pharmaceuticals, Quality Of Care, Research And Technology, Health Spending

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