There’s a really good article on CMIO.net by Jeffrey Byers discussing a piece by Drs. David W. Bates and Asaf Bitton of Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston that appeared in the April edition of HealthAffairs. The doctors basically conclude that EHRs are essential to the success of the medical home concept but that in order to be optimally effective they could use some further development in areas such as telehealth, quality and efficiency measurement, care transitions, PHRs, registries, team care and clinical decision support.

It’s great to see the association between health IT and the medical home getting some attention. It’s something MEDecision has been extensively involved in for quite a while. In fact, just a few weeks ago we conducted a webinar to discuss our experiences with care management processes in a medical home pilot program in Oklahoma. It’s an important proof point that illustrates how the industry has already begun to address some of the perceived EHR deficiencies Drs. Bates and Bitton highlight. In fact there are some really impressive technologies already out there that address most, if not all, of the issues they mention. And, of course, as the medical home, reform, ARRA and other external factors force demand, we’ll see even more advanced EHRs and health IT in general in relatively short order.