Recently there has been increased focus on the need to modernize the healthcare information infrastructure in the United States.1–4 The U.S. healthcare industry is by far the largest in the world in both absolute dollars and in percentage of GDP (more than $1.5 trillion, or 15 percent of GDP).
An efficient, integrated health services delivery enterprise requires the ability to coordinate service delivery across the provider network and avoid duplication of services. It must be able to associate relevant clinical information with patients regardless of which facility delivered the services. There are significant challenges in collecting, organizing, and extracting value from data collected in the course of providing healthcare.
In January 2004, a random sampling of 1,000 U.S. hospitals was surveyed by researchers at a midwestern university to determine perceived level of compliance with the security requirements of the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).
This study involved the design and validation of a new Lyme disease risk assessment instrument. The study was funded in part by a research grant from the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) Foundation on Research and Education (FORE).
