Health IT Through Movies
Day 11 of our 12 Days of Christmas Posts we look to Hollywood for inspiration as we pipe up about some of the biggest health It and healthcare stories of 2013. Click the title links to read up on each movie at IMDB.com.
Man of Steel The bowtie, snappy suits and calm demeanor didn’t fool anyone. For over two years Dr. Farzad Mostahari headed the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC). The person charged with running the ONC carries the unofficial title of “HealthIT Czar” for the U.S. Gaining universal respect throughout the entire industry and piling up a list of feats and accomplishments to numerous to list here, we prefer to think of him as a super hero. He will be missed.
Frozen The latest animated movie from Disney drew great reviews. The same could not be said for the debut of the Healthcare.gov website. Plagued with technical difficulties, many initial visitors reported the website taking hours to log onto, or once access was gained, freezing up or providing an error message. The U.S. chief technology officer, Todd Park, said the site was overwhelmed by up to five times as many users as it was designed to handle. Many of the site’s technical issues have since been resolved.
The Heat So what does this so-so female-cops buddy film starring Sandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy have to do with healthcare? Long awaited changes to HIPAA were ushered in in January of this year with the release of the Omnibus Ruling, four rules in one that turn up the heat on both covered entities and business associates in efforts to protect personal health information. The movie? Do yourself a favor and rent the very funny male-cops buddy film The Other Guys with Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg. If you do, be sure to brush up on your TLC lyrics, one of the funniest running bits of the movie, thanks to Michael Keaton.
About Time While we loved this sweet dramedy from the producers of Love Actually, the title of the film also seemed to echo the sentiments across the health IT sector when news broke of newly proposed timelines for Stage 2 and Stage 3 of the EHR Incentive Program. Like Stage 1, many had been saying for months that Stage 2 needed an extra year. One month from the start of Stage 2 in January of 2014, the industry got its wish. Added time-bending bonus: Stage 3 start got kicked back to 2017. Or is that kicked forward? About time indeed.
Epic This cute, animated film about a teenager transported to a mystical forest to join the battle of good against evil has absolutely nothing in common with the EHR giant. Other than the title of course. Oh, and the fact that there are a slew of other EHR companies battling Epic every day to cut in to the company’s 40% market share. In July Dr. John Halamka made his case on his Life of a Healthcare CIO blog why this is The Era of Epic.
The World’s End This goofy, English zombie comedy about five friends who reunite in a one night attempt to top their storied pub crawl from 20 years earlier and unwittingly become mankind’s only hope for survival is hilarious. Not so hilarious is the looming ICD-1o compliance deadline of October 1, 2014. We’re not saying the healthcare world as we know it will end on that day, some providers just may think that way if they’re unprepared. Even if you’re not a fan of the zombie genre, or ICD-10 for that matter, at least you can get in some laughs by watching this movie.