Health IT as a Tool for Prevention in Public Health Policies PDF

Preface

The PPACA and a New Focus on Prevention

The passing in 2010 of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) has produced a significant set of objectives for the United States and, indirectly, for the entire world. The PPACA works to produce solutions to a number of the country's old health system problems. More importantly, the solutions will be seen as most effective in the long term, once they are implemented in the short term.

Table P.1 starts off by detailing some of the major problems the U.S. has faced with its healthcare system (left column) and then suggests the current federal efforts to solve these problems (center column), followed by new solutions that are proposed (right column). Each of the chapters of this book represents a particular technological solution in which the U.S. is investing time, resources, interest, and energy.

As can be seen, the chapters that follow are grouped by theme, impact on society, and stakeholder category. Chapter 1 provides a basic theoretical foundation about the PPACA (2009) and the HITECH (Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health) Act (2009) and analyzes their effect on the future of the U.S., providing descriptions of comparisons across these pieces of legislation. Chapters 2 and 3 focus on health information technology (HIT), suggesting the foundation for its uses, its value, and the necessity for an electronic framework in the U.S. Chapters 4 and 5 take an individualized approach, asking what people can do to improve their own chances at preventing health concerns before problems arise, and producing a healthy lifestyle by supplementing health information technologies of varying kinds, including (though not limited to) mobile health apps, video games, self-management technologies, crowdsourcing, and other types of electronic health (e-health). Chapters 6 and 7 analyze what the government has done to supplement HIT efforts at various provider settings, including community health centers that affect low-income populations and small practices. The chapters include a pilot study/survey on physicians and their viewpoints on HIT. Next, Chapters 8 and 9 discuss the effects of geographic disparities and HIT at the meso, macro, and micro levels of society. Finally, Chapter 10 provides a comparative perspective, suggesting a comparison between the United States and the United Kingdom. Chapter 11 is a summary of the book, with hints about the direction that the U.S. should take toward cloud-based solutions to its electronic health infrastructure.