Health Information Technology

As our Hawaii Primary Care Association annual conference came to a close, a speaker quoted Maya Angelou, "There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you." So true. As I thought about my role in Health Information Technology, it became, once again, apparent that we HIT'ers must deliver the right amount of technology at the right time, to the right people, and in the right place. Let's face it, we techies have a tendency to get a little crazy with technology. We, sometimes, provide technology that is overkill or too much for the user(s) to utilize. We, sometimes, spend little time understanding the user and deliver the wrong technology. We need to make sure the technology we deliver is appropriate for the situation and is good for the "system" or organization. Technology such as the electronic medical record must be used to capture data and the data must be displayed and delivered to everyone who can make a difference in the health care of the nation or else... Otherwise, what are we doing all of this for?