Patients die each day as a result of poor communication among clinicians and inadequate exchange of data during transitions from hospitals to nursing homes and rehab facilities. At last week's Connected Health symposium in Boston, Dr. David Blumenthal, the CIO at Partners Healthcare and former head of the Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) for Health IT, addressed some of the issues. During a presentation on how to create an effective national HIE, he described it as a "sociotechnical project that has technical aspects as well as enormous political, economic and social aspects."
