Electronic Health Records (EHR, EMR)

Health economist Jane Sarasohn-Kahn, however, says the industry still has miles to go before public policies align with social determinants of health.

The Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust, a Global Digital Exemplar in the UK, uses EMRAM as a benchmarking tool to help drive its digital transformation strategy and improve patient outcomes.

Ana Prado, CMIO at Hospital de Cascais in Portugal, says EMRAM emphasized the need for leadership to drive digital transformation and engage clinical champions across the team to ensure data is used effectively to improve patient care.

Will Smart, CIO for Health and Social Care in England, says measuring digital maturity using tools such as EMRAM helps the NHS track progress of the global digital exemplars against international standards.

The physical therapy space went from 15 percent EHR adoption rate to 85 percent, says Shawn McKee, VP of marketing at WebPT.

The technology can be used to foster interoperability but there are some key questions that need to be answered first, including ones about privacy and security, says Pew's HIT project director Ben Moscovitch.

Duke University Health System Chief Analytics Officer Stephen Blackwelder details how IT funnels various data sources such as EHRs and claims data into a treasure trove researchers can analyze.

The DoD is deploying a new network built with cybersecurity in mind, using a risk management framework, and undergoing regular white hat assessments, says Program Executive Officer Stacy Cummings.

A quick look back at the competing specs for clinical coding and data exchange gives a glimpse of the some of the challenges still ongoing today.

Adam Greene, partner at Davis Wright Tremaine, says the HITECH Act may have pushed forward the digitization of the healthcare system, but it also changed what can go wrong from a legal compliance perspective by an order of magnitude.