U.S. health information technology falls short-report

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Efforts to use information technology to improve U.S. health care will fall short of the potential seen by health leaders and could even set back the cause, a National Research Council report said on Friday.

A committee of academic and industry experts found the information systems at eight U.S. medical centers noted for leadership in information technology failed to provide timely, efficient, safe and patient-centered care.

"The committee observed a number of success stories in the implementation of health care IT," the report noted. "But although seeing these successes was encouraging, they fall far short, even in the aggregate, of what is needed to support the Institute of Medicine's vision of quality health care."

The institute, one of the National Academies of Sciences along with the National Research Council, advises U.S. policymakers and laid out IT goals in 2001.

The committee said current health IT systems present difficulties in sharing data across platforms and in integrating new features. They also offer little in the way of cognitive support -- programs that help doctors integrate raw data, like lab tests, to get a whole picture of the patient.

Many health care providers told the committee that data entered into their IT systems was used mainly to comply with regulations or defend against lawsuits, rather than to improve care. As a result, valuable time and energy is spent managing data as opposed to understanding the patient.

The ideal, they said, would be computer systems that allow doctors to plug a patient's raw data into a database and create a "virtual patient" that would help guide treatment decisions.

President-elect Barack Obama has urged expanding the use of health information technology to cut health costs and improve the quality of health care.

A New England Journal of Medicine study in July found only 4 percent of U.S. physicians have adopted computerized health records systems that help them make decisions about patient care or order tests.

(Reporting by Julie Steenhuysen; Editing by Maggie Fox)