Social Media and Health Care: Integrating Health Care to Improve Patient Care

"Health care is the most information-intensive industry, yet it lags behind every other sector of the national economy in its adoption of information technology," Mongiardo said. "The banking industry is 20 years ahead of health care in implementing information technology." When Kentucky's Lt. Gov. Daniel Mongiardo announced in 2009 that his State was going to be one of the the first, if not the first to capitalize on President Obama's pledge to spend billions in stimulus dollars on e-health and implement a Health Information Exchange, he wasn't just talking about simple automation. Instead the Lt. Gov. used terms like "innovative and groundbreaking" to describe his vision of how technology could be used to "save lives and significantly reduce costs." Given the historic Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA)that was passed into law on March 23rd, 2010, in which the number of uninsured Americans will drop from current levels by 32 million people, improving health care while lowering costs would seem academic. However, and in line with an easier said than done perception, the disconnect between visualization and realization in terms of Mongiardo's stated goal may be more laudable than achievable. In today's Thought Leaders Series, I once again welcome our health care expert Jeff Knott to discuss why he believes that the State is actually in a unique position to successfully implement the Kentucky Health Information Exchange and, why it may become the model for other states.