Key Findings
- For public subsidies of health IT to be well spent, roughly 4 in 5 of the public and doctors favor privacy protections and requirements that participating hospitals and doctors share information to better coordinate care, cut unnecessary costs, and reduce medical errors.
- Both groups agree on the importance of requirements that publicly supported technology be used to measure progress and improve outcomes for chronic diseases.
- 62 percent of the public and 49 percent of physicians express the importance of requirements to give patients secure online copies of their personal health information.
Observations
Roughly 80 percent majorities of both groups say the following are important to ensure the health IT subsidies will be well spent:
- Protect privacy
- Share information to:
- Cut unnecessary costs
- Coordinate patient care
- Reduce medical errors
- Both groups appear to want accountability, by agreeing on the importance of goals and progress measurement.
- High levels of public/physician agreement on priorities for health IT program—but low levels of familiarity with the program—suggests an opportunity for more communications with both doctors and the public.
