PATI UMM IT : Use of Information Technology to Improve the Quality of Health Care in the United States
Introduction In 1969, when the Internet was known as the DARPAnet and the World Wide Web was nothing more than a glint in a creative student’s mind, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality funded its first project in medical informatics. 1 Since then, the Agency has continued to support research and development projects in the use of information technology to improve health care, awarding $250 million dollars to fund more than 150 projects in medical informatics. Today, the Agency is still blazing this technology trail with projects that seek to develop the knowledge and tools needed to improve the quality of care in the U.S. health care system. Background In 1998, the Committee on the Quality of Health Care in America, established within the Institute of Medicine (IOM), was asked to identify strategies for improving the quality of health care in the United States. As part of this effort, the committee published a seminal report in March 2001, Crossing ...