Let’s grow old together. Togetherness, along with eating healthy, walking a lot, and having a purpose post-retirement, are the secrets to living longer happily. A new documentary, that is the #1 show on Netflix right now, is called Live to 100: Secrets of the Blue Zones. They say “blue zones” because some guy once put blue dots on a map where people seemed to live longer than everybody else. This documentary tracks how these happy blue zone people managed to live so well for so long — both mentally and physically. Spoiler alert: Americans will have a tough time replicating these behaviors. With the way we treat our old and dying people, maybe we don’t want to live that long anyway. We explain how health information policy is part of our problem in the One Thoughtful Paragraph.
Some parts of the federal government are trying to improve our health information situation:
- CDC Director Mandy Cohen named Niall Brennan, former CMS Chief Data Officer, as a senior advisor to improve the public data infrastructure. Improving communications with the public about infectious disease and getting better, faster, actionable insights for decision-making at all levels of public health is now Niall’s problem as leader of the CDC’s Data Modernization Initiative.
- ONC renewed its contract with The Sequoia Project to see if they can get the TEFCA nationwide health data exchange dream to become a reality over the next five years. ONC also compiled guidelines for electronic health information (EHI) export – a requirement for all certified Health IT products – ahead of the upcoming December 31, 2023 deadline.
- HHS’s Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) is accepting proposals for the Digital Health Security (DIGIHEALS) project to prevent and protect against cyberattacks in healthcare systems. The RFP also says it would be great if someone could figure out how to keep medical facilities operating while they are undergoing a cyberattack. That would be great.
We know a wonderful old lady named Dottie who is 101 years young. Just like the happy old people in the Netflix series mentioned above, Dottie enjoyed a long life full of love, music, and lots of purpose. But as her life is coming to an end, her doctors, caretakers, and hospice are not cooperating to exchange her medical records to ease the transition from life-saving care to relief-focused care (i.e., palliative care). This is a common challenge for American patients and their families who face an uphill battle getting records to go where they need to go. Today happens to be the first day that HHS will begin enforcing a rule that will penalize actors (up to $1 million big dollars per violation) that purposefully block health information from leaving an electronic health record system. It is helpful to have a stick to enforce common sense, but the Netflix series makes it clear that our health care system issues are much more about culture than rules. One necessary culture change: our medical system must make it the norm, the habit, to exchange health information for the good of the patient — not because some federal rule said so. Case in point, one of Dottie’s doctors refused to continue a medication, saying it is a habit-forming controlled substance. Right. Pretty sure the habit-forming opportunities are over for Dottie. Let’s hope that all doctors can form the habit of exchanging health records so Americans can look forward to old age. We leave you with Betty White’s Tips for Leading a Long and Happy Life.
