RE: MACHINE MEDICINE

Abraham Verghese wrote about the threat that the transition to electronic health records poses to physicians’ clinical judgment.

Abraham Verghese’s article eloquently describes the debacle of the mass and hasty implementation of electronic health-record technology that occurred in response to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. The health-information-technology industry certainly bears the responsibility for producing and deploying a vast amount of software that was far from ready for prime time.

Whereas Verghese’s article offered little hope that the tech can offer a remedy to what ails the health system, I actually believe that the rule “you break it, you own it” sheds light on a path forward. Leading companies in this industry have acknowledged that we broke it and that we therefore own it and are determined to fix it. As a result, significant efforts are underway to improve E.H.R. usability and reduce physician burnout by incorporating advanced machine-learning capabilities to anticipate and predict documentation and intervention sequences. Interoperability, maligned in Verghese’s article, is actually allowing data to be shared across health systems, enhancing safety and quality. Big-data analytics are transforming the way physicians care for populations of patients. The industry has better days ahead. We broke it, we own it. Dr. Betty Rabinowitz, chief medical officer of NextGen Healthcare