• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

33 Charts

  • About
    • What is 33 Charts?
    • Bryan Vartabedian MD
  • Blog
  • 33mail
  • Foci
    • Social/Public Media
    • Physicians
    • Patients
    • Hospitals
    • Information
    • Process/Flow
    • Technology
    • Digital culture
    • Future Medicine
  • The Public Physician
Future Medicine, Technology

The Health Technology Outcomes Gap

August 6, 2018 By Bryan Vartabedian · Reading Time: < 1 minutes

Health technology outcomes gapThis analysis in Health Affairs shows that EHR adoption initially results in higher patient mortality but in the long run lowers mortality.

Having gone through the transition from paper to digital, it’s easy to imagine. Initially you think, ‘how do I do this?’ Then you say, ‘how did we do it with paper?’

There’s a period of adaptation that happens with new technology. Initially it adds little value and may even be dangerous. Ultimately, we learn, adjust and enjoy the benefits.

This concept learning to work with new technology isn’t new. 500 years ago the appearance of the printing press didn’t immediately drive the Protestant Reformation. People first had to learn how to read. Literacy and competency are necessary to leverage any technology. It doesn’t matter if you’re a doctor or a religious revolutionary.

There’s a health technology outcomes gap where the capacity of a tool is ahead of our ability to know how to make it work for us and our patients. The early outcomes associated with a new digital health tool tend to underrepresent its ultimate potential. It’s a strange inverse of Amara’s law which suggests that we overestimate the effect of a technology in the short run and underestimate the effect in the long run.

The space between digital health innovation and improvement in clinical outcomes needs attention and thought. The health technology outcomes gap is something leaders and innovators have to expect and learn to manage.

Modified image via Ken Treloar on Unsplash.

Related Articles

  • Fitbit as the Wang Laboratories of Digital Health
  • npj Digital Medicine - Moving Digital Health from Hype to Evidence
  • Digital Health and the AMA Snake Oil

Tagged With: Big Thinking, Digital health, Digital literacy, Future, Innovation, Technology

Related Articles

  • Fitbit as the Wang Laboratories of Digital Health
  • npj Digital Medicine - Moving Digital Health from Hype to Evidence
  • Digital Health and the AMA Snake Oil

Primary Sidebar

Bryan Vartabedian, MD

Bryan Vartabedian, MD
Bryan Vartabedian is the Chief Pediatrics Officer at Texas Children’s Hospital North Austin and one of health care’s influential
voices on technology & medicine.
Learn More

Popular Articles

  • The Fate of Fired Cleveland Clinic Resident Lara Kollab
  • Cures Act Final Rule – How It Will Change Medicine
  • 12 Things About Doximity You Probably Didn’t Know
  • Should Physicians Give Their Cell Phone Number to Patients?
  • Doximity Dialer Video – Telemedicine’s Latest Power Player

Sign up for 33mail newsletter

Featured Articles

Context Collapse and the Public Physician

Doctors and social media: Damned if you engage, damned if you don’t

Doctors and the Endemic Culture of Permission

Reactive and Creative Spaces

Will the Future Need Doctors?

  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter

Footer

What is 33 Charts?

With a mashup of curated and original content that crosses the spaces of digital health, media, communication, technology, patient experience, digital culture, and the humanities, 33 charts offers unique insight and analysis on the changing face of medicine.

Founded in 2009 as a center of community and thought leadership for the issues doctors face in a digital world, 33 charts was included in the National Library of Medicine permanent web archive in 2014.
Learn More

Foci

  • Digital culture
  • Digital Health
  • EHR/Health IT
  • Future Medicine
  • Hospitals
  • Information
  • Patients
  • Physicians
  • Process/Flow
  • Quality
  • Social/Public Media
  • Technology

Copyright © 2023 · 33 Charts · Privacy Policy