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Robert Hadley | Mar 29, 2017

Health IT advocate cites improved patient outcomes

Advocating the role of big data in improving patient outcomes, Sharon B. Arnold, acting director of the Agency for Healthcare Research & Quality, recently outlined the case for expanding its use in medicine.

“The good news is that evidence in mounting that using health IT (information technology) can facilitate improvements in quality of care and patient safety,” Arnold wrote on the agency’s website.

AHRQ is a branch of Health and Human Services.

Arnold championed the use of data captured via today’s technology for its role in research, managing procedures and coordinating business information for hospitals and patients.

In addition to studies from the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT and the Institute of Medicine, recent data clarify how patient safety is enhanced via technology. For example, the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association published a study in March showing a nearly 20 percent drop in drug mishaps during the first three years post-implementation of a 2009 federal law prescribing technological use in medicine.

“That's 67,000 (adverse drug events) that didn't happen thanks to health IT,” Arnold wrote.

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