Few industries still rely on fax technology the way healthcare does, and advocates for greater transparency in healthcare on both sides of the Atlantic can’t wait for that to change.
“The NHS is currently the world’s largest consumer of fax machines,” Tim Kelsey, national director for patients and information in England’s National Health Service, said Tuesday at the sixth-annual Health Datapalooza in Washington. “I would like by 2020 the fax machine to be abolished in healthcare.”
U.S. national health IT coordinator Dr. Karen DeSalvo concurred when asked by journalist-turned-Robert Wood Johnson Foundation health policy specialist Susan Dentzer what she would like to see at the same event five years from now. “I would love to see more free data flow, no fax machines, no clipboards,” DeSalvo said.
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Shortly thereafter, DeSalvo’s predecessor Dr. Farzad Mostashari, now a leader of a consumer revolt against proposed changes to the Meaningful Use EHR incentive program, added to the parade of pitchforks. The former national health IT coordinator called for a “bonfire of the faxes” in healthcare in a subsequent Health Datapalooza panel, borrowing a phrase from Beverley Bryant, director of digital technology for NHS England.
UK-US Bootcamp kicks off with inspiring call for the #bonfireofthefaxes in health care – @Beverley_Bryant #hdpalooza pic.twitter.com/7rD9cSsmKk
— Susannah Fox (@SusannahFox) May 31, 2015
Image: MedCity News illustration of Getty/Bloomberg photo.