Dr. John Halamka, CIO of Harvard Medical School and the CareGroup Health System, gave attendees a two-word response to how they should approach stimulus opportunities: "Implement now."
As Halamka explained in both his address and in a Channelweb interview before he arrived in Chicago, the stimulus funds available through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 haven't started to flow just yet.
The much-discussed term "meaningful use"--the standard by which health-care organizations will be judged on the effectiveness of their EMR and thus given incentive payments--has yet to be defined by the Department of Health and Human Services. But Halamka advised health-care organizations not to wait, saying that the Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) for Health Information Technology will have a "laserlike focus on quality and efficiency."
