doctor pointing to a laptop as patient looks on
Archived Project

Health Information Technology

Despite more than $30 billion of federal investment in health information technology since the late 2000s, the transition from paper to electronic health records in the United States still had not reached its potential to enhance coordination among health care providers and improve patient safety. So beginning in 2016 until its sunset in 2022, The Pew Charitable Trusts’ health information technology project sought to make those goals a reality.

Pew conducted research and convened stakeholder organizations to advance solutions that would make it easier for electronic records to move between the different health care settings where patients seek treatment and make the systems that house those records easier for health care providers and safer for patients.

Ultimately, Pew’s work helped move health information technology toward a system in which health information is secure, accurate, and accessible to patients and their doctors when and where it’s needed.

Doctor with tablet
Doctor with tablet
Article

Electronic Health Records Are Improving Patient Care

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Article

Anyone who has tried and failed to share information across devices on competing software platforms knows firsthand the critical importance of interoperability. When different technologies speak different languages, vital data can get lost in translation. These issues are especially challenging in health care, where doctors, hospitals, and insurers use hundreds of distinct products to manage patients’ electronic health records (EHRs).

COVID vaccination site
COVID vaccination site
Project

Public Health Data Improvement

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Project

State and local public health officials need timely, comprehensive health data from hospitals, doctors’ offices, and clinical labs to detect and respond to disease hot spots, contaminated food and water, and populations experiencing inequitable health outcomes such as higher rates of environmentally triggered conditions like asthma.

Our Work

Podcast

The Gaps in Health

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Podcast

Continuing our look at race and research, we turn to health care. We hear from Dr. Marie Bernard, who heads efforts to increase diversity in the research workforce at the National Institutes of Health, and Dr. Stephanie Brown and Kristen Azar of Sutter Health, a nonprofit California health care provider. They discuss the impact of COVID-19 on communities of color, how to build trust in the medical system among those communities, and other ways to improve patient care.

PODCAST

Setting the Records Straight: Your Digital Health

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PODCAST

Setting the Records Straight: Your Digital Health

Your medical records have gone digital—a change that promises to make health care more efficient and accessible. But as with any technology, there are glitches. Files could be mismatched, and a typo could lead to a dosing error.