Report: health IT isn't delivering.

• Position: EHR - Information technology

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More than $81 billion. That's how much Rand Corp. researchers in 2005 estimated health information technology implementation would eventually save the United States by improving the delivery and efficiency of health care. In 2012, those savings had yet to be realized.

In a report published in the January 2013 edition of Health Affairs, Rand researchers blamed the slow progress on the "sluggish" adoption of health IT systems, the inoperability of health IT systems, and healthcare providers' failure to reengineer their care processes to take full advantage of health IT.

"The failure of health information technology to quickly deliver on its promise is not caused by its lack of potential, but rather because of the shortcomings in the design of the IT systems that are currently in place," said Arthur Kellermann, M.D., the study's senior author and the Paul O'Neill Alcoa Chair in Policy Analysis at RAND, a nonprofit research organization.

Jennifer Covich, CEO of the nonprofit member association eHealth Initiative, told E-Commerce Times that the study may be a bit harsh on the progress achieved to date. However, she said, "the study points out some valid factors that need to be addressed. For example, interoperability is a big problem and the federal government should play a lead role in dealing with that.

"Vendors may not be as far along in development as we would like, but to some degree they are in the same place as health providers in trying to figure out where they should be."

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