Effect of health IT spending depends on model used.

The development of a software platform model--similar to the one created for the iPhone--could create a flexible health information infrastructure that will improve delivery of health care, increase physician productivity, foster advances in science, as well as stimulate job and economic growth rather than building on existing health IT system, says a study from Children's Hospital Boston in a Perspective article published in the March 26 issue of The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM).

"Pouring money into existing health IT systems would be the most natural approach to take with the stimulus, but it may also be the wrong approach," says coauthor Kenneth Mandl, MD, PhD, of the Children's Hospital Informatics Program (CHIP). "We need to pause and make decisions that will have long-term benefits."

In their NEJM article, Mandl and Isaac Kohane, MD, PhD, also of CHIP, propose that the government, through the Department of Health and Human Services, mandate the development of a platform that will support applications for clinical care, public health, and research. They advise creation of a platform that will support applications such as order entry systems, medication reconciliation systems, and patient communication systems as well as liquidity of data, open standards, and a diversity of applications that can be substituted for each other.