ONS Hosts Health Information Technology Think Tank
Thursday, December 15, 2011
Health Information Technology (HIT) is predicted to lead to more affordable health care, better communication between patients and healthcare providers, and result in a higher quality of care. The Oncology Nursing Society (ONS) recently hosted a groundbreaking HIT Think Tank in Pittsburgh, PA, to assess ways to support their members as HIT becomes more a part of everyday life in healthcare organizations. Attendees included healthcare executives and informatics experts as well as ONS member volunteers and staff.
“It was a privilege to have so much expertise in one location,” said Elizabeth Wertz Evans, RN, BSN, MPM, CPHQ, CPHIMS, FACMPE, executive director of professional practice and programs at ONS. “We were able to identify initial goals and objectives that relate to all pillars of our strategic plan for 2012–2016: Knowledge, Leadership, Quality, and Technology.”
“Bringing this group together to collaborate on the knowledge and tools that oncology nurses will need and use will help ONS identify meaningful contributions to the HIT architecture that will promote continued quality cancer care,” said ONS President Carlton Brown, RN, PhD, AOCN®.
“I believe we are at a tipping point in health care—we have finally stopped asking if we should be implementing and adopting new technology and have started to innovate around how to leverage the technology to improve patient care,” said Anne Ireland, RN, MSN, AOCN®, chair of the Think Tank Planning Team. “This is an exciting time to be a nurse given the significant role we will play in designing and implementing these new technologies to support quality care.”
The next steps for the think tank will focus on identifying opportunities to include ONS standards and guidelines in electronic health record (EHR) systems, promoting the role of oncology nurses as leaders in determining EHR architecture and implementation, and partnering with organizations to leverage technology in the transformation of cancer care.
ONS is a professional organization of more than 36,000 registered nurses and other healthcare professionals committed to excellence in oncology nursing and to leading the transformation of cancer care by initiating and actively supporting educational, legislative, and public-awareness efforts to improve the care of people with cancer. ONS provides nurses and healthcare professionals with access to the highest quality educational programs, cancer-care resources, research opportunities, and networks for peer support. Learn more at www.ons.org.
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