Report: U.S. health information technology falls short

Reuters/Yahoo News, January 12, 2009

Efforts to use information technology to improve U.S. healthcare will fall short of the potential seen by health leaders and could even set back the cause, according to a National Research Council report. A committee of academic and industry experts found the information systems at eight U.S. medical centers noted for leadership in information technology failed to provide timely, efficient, safe, and patient-centered care. "The committee observed a number of success stories in the implementation of healthcare IT," the report noted. "But although seeing these successes was encouraging, they fall far short, even in the aggregate, of what is needed to support the Institute of Medicine's vision of quality healthcare."