Mr. Sesno: How then can
my records--the most intimate details of my life
that live on somebody’s computer that can be, with
the touch of a button, sent anywhere somebody
chooses to send it--be protected? What’s the
mechanism for that?
Dr. Clancy:
Hmm.
Dr. Merten:
Well, there’s plenty of technology--that’s used in
the financial services industry, that’s used in the
airline industry--out there to protect it. There’s
various firewalls. There’s various ways of keeping
that information protected. I think sometimes, in
this area specifically, we have so many different
players--the physicians are a player. The hospitals
are a player, the pharmacists--and I think that the
locus of responsibility and the locus of who pays
for it isn’t as clear.
Dr. Clancy:
And if I could just pick up on one word. There are a
lot of good technological solutions, but it’s
ultimately got to be about trust. Individuals have
to be able to trust that the information about them
won’t be disclosed without their permission.
Mr. Senso:
They are going to build that trust, though, it seems
based on their experience and the experience of
others --they hear stories like this, they’re going
to have a hard time trusting, right?
Dr. Clancy:
Well, that’s correct. And that’s why over the past
year, we’ve been actually supporting a contract that
has gone out and talked to folks in over 17 states
and brought them together to try to make sure that
we can build this trust into it, because a big part
of the power of this information-sharing isn’t just
wiring Dr. Bentz’s or Dr. Benjamin’s office. It’s
actually being able to make sure that as you move
from one part of the health care system to another,
your information follows you. So you saw Dr.
Benjamin saying, "It’s so great that I know all the
medications." You have no idea how many times, if a
patient who sees multiple physicians, this is not
knowable.
Mr. Sesno:
Well--or how about this? You know, somebody’s out
skydiving in Montana or something...
Dr. Clancy:
Exactly.
Mr. Sesno:
And something goes wrong with the parachute, and
they find themselves in an emergency room somewhere,
unable to communicate what their condition is...
Dr. Clancy:
That’s exactly it.
Mr. Sesno:
Is
the idea--you know, they’re from Connecticut or
something--that the physician can pull up and see
the full breadth of their medical condition?
Dr. Clancy:
Ultimately, that is what we’re trying to build.
We’re not there yet, but I think we will get there.
Mr. Sesno:
How far are we from that?
Dr. Clancy:
Well, the president set a goal for the nation that
the majority of Americans would have an electronic
health record by 2014. And I would say we’re making
very good progress.
Dr. Merten:
But technology-wise, we could be there much sooner
than that. I think it’s the trust in the systems.
Dr. Clancy:
And without that trust, we should stop talking about
this.