Marshfield Clinic Press Release - American Medical Informatics ...

F O R I M M E D I A T E R E L E A S EDATE: Friday, September 11, 2009CONTACT:Steve Thayer, Media Specialist, 715-387-5762, thayer.steven@marshfieldclinic.orgTeresa Clark Derfus, Media Manager, 715-387-9362,derfus.teresa@marshfieldclinic.orgAn electronic copy of this release can be found at http://marshfieldclinic.org/newsEDITOR'S NOTE: A photograph of Justin Starren, M.D., Ph.D., is available by contacting Krista Weltonat welton.krista@marshfieldclinic.org, or calling Marshfield Clinic Corporate CommunicationsDepartment, 715-389-3331.MARSHFIELD CLINIC ACTIVE IN NATIONAL INITIATIVE TO REDUCEUNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES OF HEALTH INFO TECHNOLOGY,RELATED POLICIESThe American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA) late this week brought togetherexperts in informatics, health information technology (HIT) and health policy in Reston,Virginia, to discuss potential unintended consequences of HIT and policy.David Blumenthal, M.D., Ph.D., National HIT coordinator; and Aneesha Chopra, M.P.P.,chief technology officer, Executive Office of the President, and associate director forTechnology in the White House Office of Science & Technology Policy, were keynotespeakers during AMIA’s fourth annual invitational Health Policy Conference.The conference was co-chaired by Marshfield Clinic Scientist Justin Starren,M.D., Ph.D., director, Marshfield’s Biomedical Informatics Research Center. Inaddition, two Marshfield Clinic units were active sponsors of and participants atthe conference - Cattails MD Software, the unit which provides an electronichealth record (EHR) to Marshfield Clinic and others; and Security Health Plan ofWisconsin, Inc.With passage of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the UnitedStates is poised to invest billions of dollars in HIT in general and EHRs

especially over the next few years as a national imperative to improve healthcare delivery and reduce health care costs.“Any endeavor of this scale will produce unintended and unanticipatedconsequences,” Starren said. “By starting to think about and discuss thosepossible consequences now, we can minimize their negative impact.”Carl Christensen, Marshfield Clinic chief technology officer, said that “it hastaken Marshfield Clinic 40 years to develop software that now supports a trulychartless electronic workflow. Other organizations are now trying to cover thesame distance in less than one tenth of the time. That will present significantchallenges.”Speaking to the conference, Blumenthal called for the “creation of a learningcommunity” within HIT.“We support Dr. Blumenthal’s call for a learning community,” said Michael Murphy,director of Marketing and Product Development, CattailsMD Software. “CattailsSoftware was a sponsor of this conference because we believe that no single vendor hasall the answers. By sharing knowledge, we can make all EHR systems better.”“Security Health Plan is constantly looking for ways to improve the health of ourshareholders,” said Steve Youso, Security Health Plan chief executive officer.“Helping improve EHR software quality is one way to do that.”Unintended consequences occurring in previous HIT implementations werediscussed as well as lessons from other industries; possible unintendedconsequences of current HIT policies; and approaches to minimizing negativeunintended consequences.For more information or for a report from the conference, contact AMIA atwww.amia.orgAbout AMIA

AMIA is the professional home for biomedical and health informatics. AMIA isdedicated to promoting the effective organization, analysis, management and use ofinformation in health care in support of patient care, public health, teaching, research,administration and related policy. AMIA’s 4,000 members advance the use of healthinformation and communications technology in clinical care and clinical research,personal health management, public health/population, and translational science with theultimate objective of improving health.About Marshfield ClinicThe Marshfield Clinic system provides patient care, research and education with 45locations in northern, central and western Wisconsin, making it one of the largestcomprehensive medical systems in the United States.About CattailsMDFor more information about CattailsMD, go to http://www.cattailsmd.comAbout Security Health PlanSecurity Health Plan of Wisconsin, Inc. is a physician-sponsored health maintenanceorganization, owned by Marshfield Clinic, and serves more than 167,000 members in a32-county service area of Wisconsin. Security Health Plan is the third largest healthmaintenance organization in Wisconsin and provides insured and self-funded plans to avariety of large and small employers, as well as to individuals and families. SecurityHealth Plan has been named to the U.S. News & World Report/America's Best HealthPlans1 ranking for four consecutive years and is accredited by the National Committeefor Quality Assurance (NCQA).1“America’s Best Health Plans” is a trademark of U.S. News & World Report.