AHRQ Patient Safety Network Features Interviews with Health IT Leaders

AHRQ Patient Safety Network Features Interviews with Health IT Leaders

This month's Patient Safety Network (PSNet) interview features, David Blumenthal, MD, MPP, President of the Commonwealth Fund. He served as the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology between 2009 and 2011, during early implementation of the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act and the accompanying Meaningful Use program. PSNet spoke with him about the HITECH Act and lessons learned in health care since it was enacted.

PSNet also interviewed John Halamka, MD, MS, the International Healthcare Innovation Professor at Harvard Medical School, Chief Information Officer of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, and an emergency physician. He is widely known as one of the most thoughtful and provocative experts on the subject of health IT. We spoke with him about the HITECH Act and the consequences—anticipated and otherwise—of the digitization of health care.