There is a lot of debate about Dr. Brailer's recent comments on the role of RHIOs including the following survey on Health Data Management 's website.
"David Brailer's recent comments that most RHIOs eventually will become advisory/governing bodies that determine regional rules on sharing data will lead to confusion about the mission of RHIOs and make it difficult to build support for these networks. As of the time when I took the survey a couple of minutes ago, the results were that 65.87% agreed with the statement and 34.13% disagreed.
Approaching this from my perspective, I guess I do understand the initial reaction to Dr. Brailer's comments by some of those working hard to get RHIOs started in their community. However, I believe Dr. Brailer is correct!
As RHIOs develop and mature and move beyond their current "grassroots" planning and implementation role for their immediate community they will assume a more global planning and oversight role on behalf of their community within the National Health Information Infrastructure. This doesn't mean that their role will be any less important, it just means that some of the issues currently being hammered out in these RHIOs will have been addressed, allowing the governance structure the opportunity to shift focus to the big picture -- how their community fits in with NHII and how to ensure security and privacy when information is being shared around the country and world.
For example, Santa Barbara County started at a time when the technology was not available and they had to develop and create what they needed. Communities that choose to implement the same technology now, have the benefit of focusing most of their resources on other priorities. As we continue to progress in solving the multitude of challenges related to technology, governance, clinical adoption, and consumer involvement we will continue to refocus and have opportunities to step back away from today's details -- tomorrow's lessons learned!
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