Social Docs Share Health IT Tips
By
John Pulley
A group of physicians is using the latest social-media technology to help demystify health information technology that is overwhelming many of their medical colleagues.
The heart of the project is a new website designed to "serve as a trusted resource for doctors who are contemplating or are in the midst of transforming their practices or institutions using health information technology to improve health and health care," according to the nonprofit organization's mission statement.
The Doctors Helping Doctors Transform Healthcare initiative got off the ground on Dec. 1 in Washington. A webcast featured panels of physicians who shared stories of health IT implementation. Dr. Farzad Mostashari, national coordinator for health IT, and Dr. Richard Baron, director of the seamless care models group at the federal government's Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation, weighed in, as well.
The idea is to "help physicians--operating in a diverse range of settings, from small physician practices to large integrated delivery systems-learn about the value of health IT from their peers; point them to a set of resources that will not only help them make the transition to health IT, but also optimize its use to support high quality, cost-effective care delivery; and facilitate a dialogue on best practices, key challenges, and methods to overcome those challenges," the group said on its website.
The website features articles and short videos about topics including electronic health record benefits, meaningful use and EHR implementation, and a blog by doctors sharing their experiences with EHRs. It also includes links to additional resources. Doctors will talk about why they decided to adopt health IT, the strategies they used to overcome challenges, how their practices were affected and the lessons they learned, according to a news release announcing the initiative.
"We all started as EHR novices, and through our collective four decades of experience have probably made every mistake that anyone could make (and more than once)," Dr. Peter Basch, an internist and one of the founding physicians of the group and the initial chair, wrote in the inaugural blog post. He is medical director of ambulatory EHR and health IT policy for MedStar Health in Washington.
Other founding members are Dr. William Bria, chief medical information officer at Shriners Hospitals for Children and president of the Association of Medical Directors of Information Systems; Dr. Michael Zaroukian, chief medical information officer at Michigan State University and medical director of clinical informatics and care transformation at Sparrow Health System; and Janet Marchibroda, chair of the Health IT Initiative at the Bipartisan Policy Center and the Doctors Helping Doctors' initial executive director.
The initiative has received grants from the Chan Soon-Shiong Family Foundation, the Optum Institute for Sustainable Health and Siemens Healthcare.
Several professional medical organizations also have joined as collaborators. They are the American College of Cardiology, the American College of Physicians, American EHR Partners, the American Osteopathic Association, the American Society of Clinical Oncology and the Association of Medical Directors of Information Systems.