New Haven Register
December 4, 2001
by Dr. Steven Wolfson
“Nearly three months after the start of our national trauma, it is clear that we did not generate a rapid response to an attack that used a microorganism rather than a plane.”
“On a national or regional basis, essential clinical information that should be distributed quickly finds no avenue to reach doctors, hospitals, pharmacies, or clinical laboratories. Our health care system has no infrastructure! Less than half of the doctors in our country have computer skills. Fewer use this source of information on a regular basis. Fewer still are connected in any organized fashion with their local hospitals.”
“There are many reasons for this. One is that information systems able to incorporate the mass of data generated by modern medicine have developed late, are still being “debugged,” and are very expensive. Another is that the funding for their deployment cannot be found in the health care industry. It has been removed by a more than decade-long national effort to systematically downsize health care delivery so as to reduce cost. This effort has been led by managed care organizations who have, in the process, developed large bureaucracies, sizable administrative budgets, and shareholders who demand profits.”
“The private sector, represented by managed care organizations, has failed to deliver on its promise to reform the health care system, and has retreated from those programs and those localities whose health care has not generated profit.”
“There is an essential role for our government here. It alone has the resources and the authority to develop uniform standards for computer technology. It alone has the resources and authority to fund deployment of medical information systems and training of medical personnel nationwide. This funding could be in the form of direct grants, or tax incentives. Whatever the path taken to this end, construction of an infrastructure would permit the health care system to respond to the needs of traditional care as well as to the new threats to our health.”