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2012, one of the major priorities of the Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) and others across healthcare will be working to engage consumers with health IT (HIT). With significant cost pressures, it is increasingly apparent that empowering individuals to use HIT tools to become active partners in their own health and healthcare can indeed improve outcomes and reduce costs. There are a growing number of campaigns aimed at encouraging consumers to adopt HIT tools, including government-sponsored challenges to stimulate technology companies to take advantage of available data and develop innovative new products that convert that data into meaningful, actionable information for patients. Access to information and creative solutions that individuals can use to improve their health will play an impactful role in healthcare transformation.

In recognition of this important trend and the value of coordination and collaboration, National eHealth Collaborative (NeHC) created the Consumer Consortium on eHealth. The Consortium is a multi-stakeholder group of over 250 diverse organizations and individuals interested in developing a coordinated program to engage patients with HIT. Members of the Consortium represent virtually all aspects of healthcare, including providers, consumer advocates, health systems, payers, technology companies, government agencies, health information exchanges (HIEs), and more.

HIE organizations are exploring a number of different approaches to consumer engagement. Especially because of the importance of patient and family engagement as a component of meaningful use, many HIEs are or plan to offer tools to their connected providers to support that engagement such as patient portals.  The movement toward healthcare transformation and the growing focus on new delivery and financing models, such as patient-centered medical homes and accountable care, is leading to consumer engagement in HIT becoming inevitable to help drive better results.  Further, the business models for HIEs that efficiently support this direction are becoming clearer.

There are some interesting examples of successful consumer engagement. For example, as part of NeHC’s HIE Leaders Roundtable series, the US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), Rochester RHIO and Quality Health Network of Colorado recently discussed consumer engagement, shared their philosophies and approaches, and described current projects.

The Blue Button program, which began as a collaborative discussion between the VA and the Markle Foundation, has had tremendous success in putting health information directly in the hands of individuals. Blue Button allows patients to access and download information from their electronic health record into a simple text file or PDF that can be read, printed, or saved on any computer and shared with providers, caregivers, or family members. By releasing data directly to the patient, it becomes available in multiple care settings, which can translate into better outcomes for both patients and their providers. The Blue Button initiative is now much broader than only the VA, with many private organizations making data available to consumers through the same approach.

In agreement that engaging the patient can be a key to improving care, Quality Health Network in Colorado enhances the physician-patient relationship by enabling communication methods that can replace some office visits. Leadership of Quality Health Network believes that increasing the flow of information between the physicians and patients better leverages the patient as a source of valuable information.

Other leading HIEs, such as Rochester RHIO, have established portals to seek gather and document patient consent to exchange of health data and advance directives. Understanding that information must be shared in a manner that protects patient privacy and security, Rochester RHIO embarked on an awareness campaign to educate and build trust with all stakeholders throughout their community. The outreach program they created for patient consent model not only resulted in consent from over half of Rochester RHIO’s patient population, but it also took the burden off of HIE-affiliated physicians in having to explain the benefits of HIT and HIE to their patients.

Rochester RHIO is also pursuing a partnership with Microsoft HealthVault that will allow patients to download data being exchanged through the HIE. Having an HIE connection to a personal health record (PHR) has been attractive to employers and health plans that incorporate a wellness and monitoring component into their employee support system.

In healthcare we are barely at our infancy with regard to consumer engagement. However, much progress is likely to be made in 2012. With a growing number of HIE initiatives and the important role they are playing to help providers achieve meaningful use, HIEs and other stakeholders will test different strategies and approaches to engaging with consumers. NeHC University and the NeHC Consumer Consortium on eHealth will continue to serve as a forum to gather and disseminate lessons learned and work to build a robust collection of success stories and best practices that will be valuable and informative in encouraging progress toward widespread patient engagement with HIT. If other industries are any indication, we can be sure that increasing consumer demand for HIT solutions and its associated benefits will indeed help accelerate the transformation of our nation’s healthcare system, resulting in greater efficiencies, lower costs and healthier Americans.