This Is Some Interesting Research On The Impact Of Health IT In The US. A Useful Report Indeed.

The following appeared a little while ago:

Federal study shows IT improves outcomes

Posted on Aug 15, 2013

By Diana Manos, Senior Editor

A new report issued Thursday by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality has found that certain health IT products, including those that provide decision support, clinical workflow support and care coordination can lead to better healthcare outcomes. 

"Findings and Lessons from the Improving Quality Through Clinician Use of Health IT Grant Initiative" documents the findings of more than 20 research projects that investigated how health IT applications can assist providers in providing evidence-based care. Multiple studies showed positive impacts on process and intermediate outcomes.

The report highlights key findings and lessons from the experiences of 24 projects awarded in 2007 under AHRQ. According to AHRQ officials, the initiative was designed to investigate approaches for using health IT to support clinicians in making patient care decisions and coordinating care with a focus on effectively incorporating evidence-based information at the point of care. It's part of AHRQ’s Ambulatory Safety and Quality program, which was designed to improve the safety and quality of ambulatory healthcare in the U.S.

The report summarizes the extent to which the federal projects addressed the areas of interest of the IQHIT initiative and identifies practical insights regarding the use of health IT to improve clinical decision-making and care coordination in the ambulatory setting, according to AHRQ officials.

More here:

http://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/federal-study-shows-it-improves-outcomes

There is also coverage here:

AHRQ Projects Show Positive Impact of HIT on Care Quality

Written by Sabrina Rodak | August 15, 2013

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality has released a report summarizing the results of the grant initiative, Improving Quality Through Clinician Use of Health IT.

The grant initiative is one of five initiatives under AHRQ's Ambulatory Safety and Quality program, which focuses on the role of health IT in ambulatory healthcare quality and patient safety. The report, "Findings and Lessons From the Improving Quality Through Clinician Use of Health IT Grant Initiative," describes the 24 projects that examined one of four main areas:

1. Providing patient-specific information, clinical knowledge and decision support
2. Supporting clinical workflow
3. Coordinating care
4. Understanding the impact on outcomes

More here:

http://www.beckershospitalreview.com/quality/ahrq-projects-show-positive-impact-of-hit-on-care-quality.html

The conclusions of these studies say it all.

Conclusion.

The IQHIT projects demonstrated significant progress toward addressing AHRQ goals of advancing  understanding of how clinicians can use health IT  to improve the quality of health care. They developed and tested a range of approaches for enhancing  CDS, providing clinical information at the point of  care, and improving care coordination, while also  studying how to integrate health IT systems into  clinical workflows. Several projects showed a positive  impact on process outcomes related to the delivery  of evidence-based preventive and chronic care, or the  use of health IT by clinicians. In addition, several  projects showed a positive impact on intermediate  outcomes such as chronic disease control, clinician  perceptions of health IT usefulness, and clinician  satisfaction. Other projects demonstrated improvements in health outcomes such as adverse drug events  and functional status. Their findings and insights can provide the foundation for advances in several of  the priority areas in the National Quality Strategy,  especially making care safer, coordinating care, and  promoting the use of effective care (HHS, 2012), as  the IQHIT researchers showed how clinician use of  health IT can improve outcomes in all of these areas.  The IQHIT projects continue to build the evidence  base for clinician use of health IT as they are consistent with the findings of a recent systematic review of  earlier research on the effects of clinician use of CDS  systems (Bright et al., 2012, Lobach et al., 2012).

The findings and lessons from the IQHIT initiative  can inform researchers and implementers interested  in using health IT to help clinicians improve the  quality of health care. The continued rapid pace of  technological change and the continued interest in  the use of health IT to improve health and health  care delivery make the results of this body of research  timely and relevant to ongoing efforts to expand the  use of health IT to improve the quality of health care

The full report is here:

http://healthit.ahrq.gov/sites/default/files/docs/page/findings-and-lessons-from-the-improving-quality-through-clinician-use-of-health-it.pdf

Well worth a download and read.

David.