With the promise of big data (solving the unsolvable problems, informing better decision making, creating new products and services, discovering patterns and acting on them, etc.) on the horizon, what has really changed?  Does this mean that everything we know and do with not-so-big data should be tossed?

There are two key factors for success in a consumer-driven market: holding down costs and retaining members. And a cohesive multichannel digital media strategy that includes social media tools - used effectively in retail and other industries but less so in healthcare – can help with both.

EHRs are generating a wealth of information and simply having data in an EHR does not solve the data fragmentation problem. Merging the data together is just the first step, data quality is the next. It ensures medical professionals have the right data to make the right decisions.

Reducing individual risk in the new health insurance market will require an effective partnership among consumers, providers and health insurers. And a free flow of information, more than just claims data, will be at the heart of that partnership.

I am better connected with friends all over the world through social networking apps than to my primary care physician a few miles down the road. Wikipedia allows for better, more instantaneous collaboration and sharing of information across the globe than the tools physicians are generally using to document healthcare encounters today. We need to change that.

Flames?  Coming out of the water faucets? Fire coming out of any plumbing egress cannot be a good thing. I don’t know if you’ve seen the videos of this, but fracking, a convergence of deregulation and new technology, opens unprofitable mining areas and has the nasty polluting side effect of forcing flammable gas into water faucets.

A staggering, decaying hulk blocks your path. Hungrily, it roars, “Braaaiiins! Must have braaaaiins!”  This isn’t “The Walking Dead,” the popular zombie TV show.  This is about something much scarier:  the walking dead legacy health information technology (HIT) systems lurching about and sucking life out of our enterprises. C’mon.  Admit it.  You have systems costing more than they are worth, and would look good in a chalk outline. Secretly, you would love to axe them in the head.

It’s becoming clear that more consumers than ever before are accessing health care information online. A recent Pew study found that users under 50 are more than four times as likely to use their smartphone to look up medical information than those over 65. Another study found that 70 percent of Americans over 65 with Internet access have searched for health topics.

A 2005 RAND report predicted that widespread use of electronic health records technology would save the US healthcare system at least $81 billion per year. Did it?  To put it bluntly, no.  A new RAND report essentially admits that the original study was dead wrong.

Being a health IT professional can be an incredibly rewarding job. I’m proud of the role my peers and I play in building and innovating the future of health care. Especially because the ultimate goal in the work that we do is to improve the care that patients receive, which of course includes ourselves, our families, and our friends.