Branding Health IT. Ouch!

Quick, what is the first image that comes to mind when you think about team work, as in "health IT is a team effort -- one that requires different players working together toward the common goals of increased coordination, quality, safety and efficiency in our health care system?"

Do you see one half of an orangey-gold five-point star at the end of a two-band rainbow of red and blue? Do you hear Judy Garland singing about an enchanted land of functional heath IT, somewhere over the rainbow? If so, you could do marketing for the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT, which recently unveiled a new theme and visual identity for the ridiculously difficult task of moving the country's health IT system into the 21st century.

Having determined the necessity of branding that effort, ONC came up with a slogan, "Connecting America for Better Health," and a visual identity, the aforementioned half star (a ubiquitous motif) and arcing lines.

So, what's with the red and blue rainbow? Did the spectrum of light lose most of its colors in the economic downturn? Did Roy G. Biv shorten his mnemonic moniker to R.B.? I'm guessing that the design team, having agreed to be visually inclusive of red and blue America, called it a day.

Than again, maybe those arcing bands aren't a rainbow. Perhaps they're streams of cosmic dust trailing a shooting star that is plummeting toward a vast sea of paper medical records that will vaporize upon impact. Perhaps those arcs are the outline of a stylized horizon above which the star is rising, a take on Reagan's Morning in America kitsch, which the Obama campaign visually interpreted to good effect. If I didn't know better, I'd swear that the design is a rip-off of the Energy Star logo.

"This message clearly illustrates one of HITECH's guiding principles -- namely that we are all in this together," wrote Peter Garrett, ONC communications director, in an entry posted to ONC's edgy blog, Health IT Buzz. "The new theme and visual identity . . . really captures the spirit of these combined efforts to boost national adoption of electronic health records and ensure success."

The news hit the Buzz site on Aug. 27 -- a Friday -- a day of the week favored by public relations pros seeking to bury a dog of a story.

Which is fine, so long as I never hear a digitally altered recording of Judy Garland pining for an EHR ...

Somewhere over the rainbow

Way up high,

There's a paperless health care system that I heard of

Once in a lullaby.

Somewhere over the rainbow

Skies are IBM blue,

And the electronic health records that you dare to dream of

Really do come true.

Someday I'll wish upon a star

And wake up where unconnected data are

Behind me.

Where file cabinets melt like lemon drops

And meaningful use is really tops

That's where you'll find me.

Somewhere over the rainbow

Bluebirds fly.

VA docs use Vista.

Why then, oh why can't I?

If happy little bluebirds fly

Beyond data exchange centers

Why, oh why, can't I?