Eighty-two healthcare providers from across the country met at the White House June 19^th to examine progress and impediments in the quest to institute a national Health IT system. The IT Town Hall was intended to share lessons learned in adopting, implementing and meaningfully using electronic health records (EHRs). Jeff Humell, practicing physician and medical director for the Washington & Idaho Regional Extension Center (WIREC) for health information technology at Qualis Health, has successfully used EHRs since 1998 and believes the technology can help improve patient care with the rest of the nation’s healthcare community. Although EHRs promise to provide increased efficiency in care that will lead to better health outcomes, there are still barriers preventing widespread deployment. Dr. Humell discussed how to leverage health IT to overcome concerns over privacy, security and building systems that can “talk to each other.”

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