The Wireless Health or WiHealth event kicked off in Boston yesterday with a keynote presented by Janet Marchibroda, IBM's newly appointed Chief Healthcare Officer, and former founding CEO of the eHealth Initiative (eHI). Minutes into her keynote Marchibroda made a bold and seemingly odd statement for a keynoter at an event that is focused is wireless health:
"I'm not going to spend time on wireless health or telehealth but more so on the policy environment," Marchibroda explained.
What followed was a lengthy discussion of ARRA, meaningful use and the federal government's push for electronic health records. Marchibroda noted many of the various EHR-related stats that have been batted around for months including: Only about 4 percent of healthcare facilities have an electronic health system and only about 13 percent have a basic functional system. About 1.5 percent of U.S. hospitals, however, have a "comprehensive" electronic health records system.
Finally, more than three quarters of the way through her presentation, Marchibroda asked the audience: How can we make sure -- how can we leverage some of these incentives to get funding for what we do in telehealth? How can it fit in with meaningful use? We do run that risk that healthcare providers might meet the requirements but then stop right there.
"Meaningful use will drive dollars in this industry for the next five to ten years," Marchibroda concluded.
Better Health's Vince Kuraitis, who was in the audience, commented moments later that the statement was no less than "profound."
At that point a couple of the audience members began to get frustrated: "Are there any other goals [within the Recovery Act] outside of electronic health records that might apply to telehealth?" one audience member asked. "You are talking about waiting five to eight years [for widespread EHR adoption] and that's still a long way off. I can connect every individual right now for less money and faster than connecting [all the EHR] systems. So the question is: Is [the Recovery Act] all just directed at putting that $36 billion at getting electronic health records and systems? Is it all from the system side as opposed to the individual side?"
Marchibroda responded: "Meaningful use, as defined by this committee, you are right, it's directed at providers. So providers will get the money and they use indirect incentives to facilitate some of this... For example, one of the metrics will be: What percentage of your patients have access to their medical information? [Providers] are nervous about that for a whole host of reasons but not because they don't want to do it -- but because it is hard."
What do you think -- is federal stimulus money crucial to wireless health? Is this emerging industry set to be stifled since the next five to ten years of spending in the healthcare industry will be almost entirely focused on meeting meaningful use requirement? Why or why not is stimulus money part of your company's business plan?
