Health Affairs: Docs need to learn more health IT competency earlier

Quality improvement and patient-centered care—two concepts essential to the health reform effort—will require health IT. Current and future physicians must master the minimal competencies required to use health IT if the healthcare system is to reach its quality and cost containment goals, according to an article in the March edition ofHealth Affairs. Health Affairs: Docs need to learn more health IT competency earlier


Six near-term opportunities for integrating health IT training into educational and professional development programs are defined:


1. Improve integration of health IT into medical licensing board exams
2. Include health IT requirements in accreditation of curricula
3. Require meaningful use of health IT as a condition of licensure
4. Integrate assessment of health IT capabilities into board certification
5. Integrate use of health IT into continuing medical education: 
6. Use EHR-generated practice profiles to customize continuing medical education: