FROM THE FOUNDATION

Statewide Telehealth Center Established

The California Center for Connected Health will coordinate strategy and planning for statewide telehealth adoption and use. Sandra Shewry will lead the multimillion-dollar effort to bring better health care to underserved areas.

Better Nursing Through Technology

Nurses prefer to work in hospitals where safety, quality, and their own job satisfaction are top priorities. This report examines how technology can improve both nurses' work environment and the level of care they provide.

EHRs and PHRs

Monday, November 17, 2008

Federal Study Details Barriers to Health Care IT Adoption

On Friday, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality released a study detailing barriers that consistently prevent elderly, chronically ill and underserved consumers and their physicians from using health IT, Healthcare IT News reports.

The study, conducted by Oregon Health and Science University's Evidence-Based Practice Center, found that the most successful health IT systems are those that let physicians assess patients' health status, treatment plans and goals and offer new or adjusted treatment recommendations. Such systems are effective, regardless of the patient's illness, education, income status or location.

Barriers

A significant barrier to health IT adoption is patients not understanding the benefit of using computers or other technologies to manage their health problems, according to the study. Other barriers include:

  • Patient time constraints;
  • Lack of trust in information;
  • Technical problems; and
  • Lack of physician responsiveness.

The study is based on a search of studies on interactive health IT used by the target group of consumers. The American Health Information Community requested the study (Manos, Healthcare IT News, 11/17).



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