We have the experts in regulation and law who can devise ways to remove existing barriers to change and to protect both consumers and providers. We also have the industry resources necessary in medical computing and software development, as well as data storage and analysis. Finally, we have the venture capital that can catalyze innovation in the design of new health system models. Fully exploiting the benefits of information technology could simultaneously reduce costs and improve health care quality and patient satisfaction. The obstacles to greater use of information technology in health care are many.
Health care is among the most tradition-bound of our social institutions.
The current crisis provides an opportunity to rethink some of the structures that define the industry. Massachusetts can and must serve once again as a laboratory for the nation, this time developing new models of delivering health care. Use data systems to track provider and insurer quality to enable patients to make informed choices among a wider variety of health care options. Allow physicians to reclaim authority for care decisions. In exchange, providers should agree to make clinical performance data publicly available and to accept a new payment system that would provide opportunities for innovation and compensate for high-quality care, yet keep them accountable for costs, adjusted for disease and severity of patient condition.