The Wall Street Journal recently interviewed Dr. David Blumenthal, the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, about the push for electronic health records in every doctor's office and whether the current agenda pushes older technologies that will stifle innovation. Blumenthal said that his team wants to ensure it does not slow any innovation from entering the doctor's office. 

"The last thing we want to do is inhibit innovation in this very young industry," Blumenthal said. "There are contending priorities. There is a strong desire to get the technology to the physician and have it used in doctors' offices. There's also the concern that we'll put the industry in a straightjacket (by endorsing only existing equipment). We'll try to resolve these issues by focusing on performance rather than any specific technology. We'll say to the industry and providers of care: We don't care how you accomplish critical tasks, so long as you do so with electronic technology. If someone produces the equivalent of an Apple iPhone, where the doctor selects certain applications, that's fine -- so long as it works."

A few weeks ago mobihealthnews interviewed the chief medical officer of the West Wireless Health Institute Dr. Eric Topol about the defnition of "meaningful use" of EMRs and wireless health technologies. During the interview Dr. Topol referenced his colleague Dr. Blumenthal:

"A colleague of mine, whom I have great respect for, David Blumenthal deserves a lot of credit for taking ['meaningful use'] on, especially since he had that great gig at Harvard," Topol said. "He is struggling with this term along with everyone else. There will be panels of people weighing in on the definition of this. I don't have a good sense of that yet and this is not an area in which I have expertise. I am an end user and an end user who is frustrated, but I would defer to the gurus on this one."

Topol went on to explain that although the new administration has given health IT a good amount of attention, "so far, it's somewhat of a missed opportunity."

"There is so much interest on the medical records side," Topol said. "But the excitement and more imminent revolutionary potential is on the wireless sensor side. If they get used then they will bring about the outcomes we all want -- improve outcomes, and improve costs. Even the economists are beginning to agree that these wireless sensors are a technology that can lower costs."

For more from Blumenthal, read the WSJ interview here.
For more from Topol, check out our recent interview here.