The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology just released a new brief titled, “Building a Foundation of Electronic Data to Measure and Drive Improvement.” This brief highlights how various Beacon Communities from Colorado to Maine demonstrate the value of health IT for quality improvement (QI) initiatives. The Beacon Communities have become increasingly adept in bringing together multiple sources of data and improving its validity to reflect their progress - ultimately demonstrating the power of health IT to measure and improve care quality. The challenges the Beacon Communities have faced, and the novel approaches they developed to address them can serve as a guide for other organizations who are seeking to use health IT to achieve their own quality objectives.
