Technology Tactic Team

The Technology Team has been charged with envisioning a future that focuses on putting health information technology (HIT) to work to solve problems facing primary care physicians/family physicians and their teams in ways that optimally support the health and health care of people across the U.S.

While the future is already here in pockets around the country, family medicine practices face challenges every day that are sometimes caused by, and at other times solved by, technology. To address these challenges, FMAHealth in collaboration with the AAFP has formed the Alliance for e-Health Innovation Advisory Council. The Council is composed of representatives from all 8 family medicine organizations and includes a medical student and resident representative as well.

Two of the projects that the Tech Team has been working on are included here:

Core Team Members

Steven E. Waldren, MD, MS, Team Leader; Director, Alliance for eHealth Innovation, AAFP

Jewell P. Carr, MD; Family Physician, Carolinas HealthCare System

Deborah J. Cohen, PhD; Professor, Oregon Health & Science University

Ciarán A. DellaFera, MD; Family Physician, Assistant Director of Medical Information Systems, and Director of Transgender Medicine, Greater Lawrence Family Health Center

Jacob M. Reider, MD; CEO, Alliance for Better Health

Jen Brull, MD, FAAFP (FMAHealth Board Liaison); CEO, Prairie Star Family Practice

Vision for a Principled Redesign of Health Information Technology

To support and promote the health of our nation, health professionals must develop meaningful relationships with the people, families, and communities they serve. Technology has great potential to help foster connections and relationships among health care professionals, individuals, and communities, and to be a catalyst instead of the barrier it frequently is today. In addition to putting up barriers to achieving the Quadruple Aim, poor usability and utility is resulting in health IT contributing to the growing problem of physician burnout.

Following a Health IT Summit held in 2016 in Washington, D.C, the team wrote and published a Vision for a Principled Redesign of Health Information Technology. The statement envisions a future where technology makes it easy for individuals and their health care professionals to have a comprehensive view of all aspects of their health (individual, community, and environmental) and to use this information in developing and executing personalized care plans. Milestones for success on this path to the future have been set and the AAFP and ABFM have committed to carrying it forward.

To learn more, read the Vision for a Principled Redesign of Health Information Technology (here) that outlines year-by-year attributes for future Health IT opportunities.

Development and Curation of a Health IT Innovator Community

The Technology Team launched the development of an innovator community composed of health IT entrepreneurs and family physicians interested in working together to address practical problems and improve health through innovations in technology. The team held a well-attended Health Innovation Roundtable at the 2016 STFM Continuous Practice Improvement Conference in San Diego.

In 2017, a second annual Health Innovation Roundtable will be held as part of STFM’s Conference on Practice Improvement in Louisville, KY – November 30-December 3.

The event will focus on gaining insight from family physicians to help drive innovation to address practical problems facing primary care practices.

Do you have problems that you think Health IT may be able to solve? Are you an IT entrepreneur who wants to learn more about the problems that primary care practices face in order to help solve them? Let us know. Contact us at [email protected]

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