Across New York State and the nation, there is a system-wide transformational change in the way health care is delivered as a result of technology advancements. At the New York State Department of Health (DOH), the office of Health Information Technology Transformation (OHITT) has taken the lead on the integration of health IT into health care systems. To mark the important role health information technology plays in improving health care delivery, State Health Commissioner, Nirav R. Shah, MD, MPH discusses how health IT is transforming healthcare in New York State.
Video Transcript
Hello, I’m Dr. Nirov Shah, Commissioner of Health for New York State. Welcome to the 8th Annual Health Information Technology Week.
We live in a world today that is awash in data and technology: Google searches, Twitter posts, bank transactions, online coupons, medical research, even YouTube videos. Data, you may have heard, is our next great natural resource, like cotton in the 1800s and oil at the turn of the century. Data has the power to transform our lives—to reduce crime, target advertisements, and yes, shape health care outcomes.
But health data is unlike other kinds of data. Health information is sacred, closely guarded secrets that aren’t discussed in hospital elevators or within earshot of the next patient in line. Here in New York, we’ve already proven that data can be carefully used to improve population health without compromising privacy. Just this year, we launched New York’s open data website, healthdata.ny.gov, and became among the first states in the country to liberate health data from our files.
For the first time, we’re able to find the answers to our biggest health questions in actual, real, meaningful data and develop empirical, evidence-based policy guidance on how to optimize the health of populations and individuals. For the residents of New York, this data will be useful in many ways—from providing information on childhood obesity to helping caregivers determine the availability of nursing home beds.
No doubt, New York is an exceptionally wired state. Our hospitals and physicians are more likely to adopt electronic health records and use the health information exchange than their peers in other states, and that’s having a direct impact on patient health. Take Rochester, New York. We know that in Rochester, when you go to an emergency department and a doctor looks up your medical records, the odds of your being admitted to the hospital go down by 30 percent. Data from Rochester also show that if you have a CAT scan for a headache and go back to another doctor with the same complaint a week later, you’ll be 35 percent less likely to have a repeat CAT scan if the second doctor actually goes on the health information exchange. That spares the patient from excessive radiation and saves all of us money.
In addition to liberating our state health data, we have opened access to the Statewide Health Information Network of New York, which we call the SHIN-NY. Thanks to the SHIN-NY, New York is now the first state to have a statewide health information exchange with clinical data available. The SHIN-NY is linked across the state by RHIOs, or Regional Health Information Organizations. That means real clinical data—like allergies, medications, and lab results—all of that is now available thanks to a network of participating hospitals, physician practices, long-term care providers, and payers, all of whom have signed on to share data on their regional RHIOs.
New York is also home to the Digital Health Accelerator, the largest health IT accelerator program in the country. The New York Digital Health Accelerator is a public-private partnership between the New York eHealth Collaborative, the Partnership Fund of New York City, and the State Department of Health, and it’s already resulted in 17 live pilot projects in healthcare settings.
But no matter who is handling the data—be it the government, a physician, or a business—remember this: patients own the data. That’s right, all of the health information still belongs to the citizens in each of our communities. To encourage that kind of self-determination, the New York eHealth Collaborative is designing a patient portal that will enable consumers to access their medical records. With the Patient Portal, all New Yorkers will know in an instant what their cholesterol levels are, their last blood pressure reading, and the dosage of a medication they take. This is vital information for making healthy choices.
As you can see, the power and potential of our next great natural resource—health data and health information technology—is limitless. It is with these exciting developments that we celebrate Health Information Technology Week. With the help of Health IT, we will transform our healthcare system into an integrated delivery system that provides the best possible care, and that’s good news for all of us.
Thank you.