In many countries, primary care clinicians serve as the foundation for health care and the “gatekeepers” for more specialized referrals. A new international survey of primary care physicians in eleven countries finds that American doctors are significantly behind many of their counterparts elsewhere in providing access to high-quality care and use of health information technology, [...]

A new study published yesterday in Health Affairs finds that hospitals that disproportionately care for low-income patients are falling behind in adopting electronic health records (EHRs). This is the first paper to use national data comparing EHR adoption between acute care providers primarily caring for the poor and those serving more general populations.
Ashish Jha of the [...]

Preventing and more effectively managing chronic illness are critical national health priorities. Patients with chronic disease currently account for three-quarters of overall health spending. Multiple morbidities are common: More than half of Medicare beneficiaries are treated for five or more chronic conditions yearly. Nine chronic ailments account for nearly 60% of the recent rise in [...]

It is often observed wryly that Americans have more interest in the well-being of their automobiles and pets than their own health. The challenges of activating patients to manage diet, lifestyle, and chronic conditions are well documented, and the accompanying costs of chronic illness are even more thoroughly characterized. The threats these pose to health [...]

This week’s Health Wonk Review, the roving digest of the best of health policy blogging, features new posts on health reform, including the public plan option, health care costs, health IT, and more. This week’s host is Tinker Ready of Boston Health News.

Health reform tops the most-read list for April on the Health Affairs Blog. A series of posts on health IT looked at building the new technology into the delivery system, effect on patient-physician relationships, and more. Additional commenting is always welcome.

No Direction Home: A Primary Care Physician Questions The Medical Home Model by Caroline Poplin
Health [...]

Editor’s Note: Health Affairs is proud to be a media partner for the Health 2.0 Meets Ix conference, which will take place April 22 and 23 in Boston, Massachusetts. As part of the lead-up to the conference, which will focus on the interplay between the Health 2.0 and information therapy (Ix) movements, Health Affairs Blog [...]

Editor’s Note: Health Affairs is proud to be a media partner for the Health 2.0 Meets Ix conference, which will take place April 22 and 23 in Boston, Massachusetts. As part of the lead-up to the conference, which will focus on the interplay between the Health 2.0 and information therapy (Ix) movements, Health Affairs Blog [...]

Editor’s Note: Health Affairs is proud to be a media partner for the Health 2.0 Meets Ix conference, which will take place April 22 and 23 in Boston, Massachusetts. As part of the lead-up to the conference, which will focus on the interplay between the Health 2.0 and information therapy (Ix) movements, Health Affairs Blog and [...]

Health IT has a heavy showing in this month’s most-read posts on Health Affairs Blog. Physician Caroline Poplin’s questioning of the medical home model, posted in late March, is generating debate. And a post from last May on Indiana’s health reform effort still makes the top 10 — and that’s no April Fool.

The Attack On [...]

Editor’s Note: Health Affairs is proud to be a media partner for the Health 2.0 Meets Ix conference, which will take place April 22 and 23 in Boston, Massachusetts. As part of the lead-up to the conference, which will focus on the interplay between the Health 2.0 and information therapy (Ix) movements, Health Affairs Blog and other participating [...]

Health Affairs released its March-April Issue, “Stimulating Health IT,” at a March 10 briefing in Washington DC. Video and audio recordings of the briefing, with accompanying PowerPoint presentations, are available on the Health Affairs Website. An audio recording of the briefing is also available on ITunes. In addition, you can access an archive of a live Twitter feed [...]

One of the more creative provisions in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act’s $19 billion health information technology (IT) initiative calls for the creation of “regional extension centers” to “provide technical assistance and disseminate best practices . . . to support and accelerate efforts to adopt, implement, and effectively utilize” health IT. Simply put, the [...]

Tomorrow’s Health Affairs briefing, “Stimulating Health Information Technology,” will be covered live on Twitter. Posts will appear in real time on the twitter “channel” #HAHIT with important points, images and content from the event. For those who aren’t able to make it to the JW Marriott on Tuesday, this coverage will be a window onto the [...]

There is widespread agreement that greater investment in information technology (IT) is critical to reforming U.S. health care. The use of such technologies as electronic health record systems, personal health records, e-prescribing, and computerized physician order entry holds the potential for vastly improving care at a reasonable cost. The recently enacted economic stimulus legislation included [...]

Few of us could have predicted (or were ready for) the firestorm of opposition that provisions in the stimulus bill related to electronic health information or comparative effectiveness research created a few weeks ago.
Oh, we might have thought that privacy issues related to electronic health records (EHRs) might be of concern. Or the fact that electronic [...]

The most-read posts on Health Affairs Blog this January included much health reform advice to the Obama Administration and calls to action on health IT and rebuilding primary care. Additional commenting is always welcome.

Top 20 Health Affairs Journal Articles For 2008
by Jane Hiebert-White

Complete The Work On Health Information Technology
by David Brailer

Daschle: What Can We Expect [...]

Editor’s Note. Below, Mark Leavitt, chair of the Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology, addresses an open letter on health information technology to President Obama and the new Congress. Health IT is also the topic of Health Affairs‘ upcoming March-April issue, which will be released on March 10. 
President Obama and members of Congress: 
Please accept my heartfelt congratulations for recognizing [...]

With the U.S. tab for health care approaching one dollar out of every five, a key question on the health reform agenda is how to achieve value in health care. Jeanne Lambrew, the new deputy director of the White House Office on Health Reform, spoke this morning to nearly 800 health policy wonks at the [...]

President-elect Barack Obama and President George W. Bush may disagree on many topics, but they clearly agree on one thing: information technology (IT) is essential to reforming our health care system. They see the evidence that IT prevents errors that kill tens of thousands of Americans each year, reduces waste and duplication that cost up [...]