Farzad Mostashari, M.D., Brookings Institution visiting fellow and former national coordinator for health information technology, Department of Health and Human Services, spoke to Leadership Health Care members this week on disruptive change in the health care industry.
Mostashari pointed out that the HITECH and Affordable Care Acts have been catalysts for major shifts in health care and discussed the implications of insurance exchanges, hospital consolidation and consumerism in health care.
He explained that health information technology has accelerated tremendously in a short period of time. In 2008, only nine percent of hospitals had electronic health records (EHRs). Fast-forward to 2014, 98 percent of hospitals are committed to meaningful use of EHRs. Half of the prescriptions written in the U.S. today are electronic.
In order for organizations to survive and thrive during this time of transformation, Mostashari emphasized that they must integrate HIT into the company’s culture, and use it to understand patients and providers. Secondly, behavior change is essential.
“The goal should be creating an environment where the right thing to do is also the easy thing to do,” Mostashari said. “If you know your patients, learn and change, this will be the golden age of health care for you.”
The discussion with Farzad Mostashari, M.D., is part of ongoing programming for the Council’s Leadership Health Care initiative, offering members insight from national industry leaders in an interactive setting. For more information about Leadership Health Care, visitwww.leadershiphealthcare.com.
About Farzad Mostashari, M.D.
Farzad Mostashari, M.D., ScM, is currently a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C., where he is focusing on payment reform and delivery system transformation. He served from 2011-2013 as the national coordinator for health information technology at the Department of Health and Human Services where he coordinated U.S. efforts to build a health information technology infrastructure for health care reform and consumer empowerment.
Previously, Mostashari served at the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene as assistant commissioner for the Primary Care Information Project, where he co-led agile development of population health management functionality within a commercial EHR, and its adoption by more than 1,500 providers in underserved communities.
Mostashari completed graduate training at the Harvard School of Public Health and Yale Medical School, served his internal medicine residency at Massachusetts General Hospital and completed the CDC’s Epidemic Intelligence Service program. He was a lead investigator in the outbreaks of West Nile Virus and anthrax in New York City and among the first developers of real-time nationwide electronic disease surveillance systems.