05/14/09 04:57 pm ET
An editor at Government Executive came across this video today, which is apparently part of a campaign to raise public awareness about the benefits of increasing adoption of health information technology.
The video was written, directed and performed by Ross Martin, a physician who currently works as senior manager of technology integration and life sciences at Deloitte Consulting in Washington. On his personal Web site he describes himself this way: "The big picture: I'm a physician, writer, musician, inventor, entrepreneur, medical informatician, consultant, and perpetual dreamer, though not necessarily in that order.
If you're looking for a straight arrow, look somewhere else. I gave up long ago the expectation that my life would follow a predictable path."
According to his LinkedIn profile Martin formerly worked on health IT for Pfizer and BearingPoint, though he clearly has other talents:
Communicating the benefits of health IT to the general public is tough. Advocates have been beating this drum for years and we're still a long ways from a national, interoperable health records system, which President Obama has said he hopes to create in five years.
But as someone whose first job in high school was working in the IT department of my local hospital, I'm pleased to see the benefits of using technology in health care discussed in such an accessible, light-hearted format. Perhaps I should send this video to all the nurses and ward clerks who used to stare at us suspiciously while we assured them that the new computers we were installing would in fact help them do their jobs.
COMMENTS
It also helps to realize that he is part of Delotties health care consulting team which he gives credit to at the end of the video. He is a great guy and very talented musically and very well respected in the Health IT community (he came from Pharma and was at Bearing point until recenly) but this is the exact opposite of the message we want to get out.
So far it has been a bunch of insiders and techies arguing with one another with very very little conversation about the benefits or value to consumers, patients or taxpayers.
We want a video of kaiser in Hawaii where people actually are saving time, getting better care, and living healthier lives.
Boston Cynic 05/19/09 05:21 pm ET