If you've got a lot of money and your reputation on the line in an effort to create a huge paradigm shift in how we as an industry deliver healthcare, you need to create an infrastructure and make available the resources to support this tsunami of social and technological change. The Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT has carefully architected such an infrastructure.
As Dr. David Blumenthal, head of ONC, pointed out, the 17 Beacon Communities are early adopters of health IT and are in the best position to demonstrate how the rest of the healthcare providers and community stakeholders across the country can learn from what they’ve done and replicate best practices.
There is much criticism about the speed to market required by CMS to achieve meaningful use of EHRs. Even with the resources, healthcare providers will be hard pressed to meet these goals. At the same time, the vast number of resources available is a boon to healthcare providers just starting out.
The ecosystem that ONC is creating relies heavily on collaboration. If you look at the different states, you'll see that the designations of entities for statewide health information exchanges and regional extension centers are either one in the same or closely working together. There is absolutely no reason to reinvent the wheel and every reason to share existing resources.
