Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen (D) on Tuesday said the health IT industry and federal government should focus efforts on electronic prescribing because the technology is relatively simple and provides an immediate improvement in quality of care, Government Health IT reports.
Insurers and payers can help drive the adoption of e-prescriptions through mandates, and the process can be simplified for physicians, Bredesen said at the Health Information and Management Systems Society conference in New Orleans.
Bredesen, who is co-chair of the National Governors Association's State Alliance for e-Health, also said that electronic health record development should focus on simpler standards similar to less-complex Internet standards. Health care IT has too many standards, technical tools and pilot projects, he said.
Rather than launching pilot projects, the industry should begin adopting user friendly systems to help reduce the country's health care costs, he added (Brewin, Government Health IT, 2/27).