One Way to Improve U.S. Healthcare, Lower Costs and Drive Outcomes? “Unvendor,” Asserts Dr. Harm Scherpbier in His New Book
By Jane Sarasohn-Kahn on 21 March 2025 in AI, AI and health, Artificial intelligence, Augmented intelligence, Behavior change, Business and health, ChatGPT, Clinical lab, Computers and health, Connected health, Connectivity, Consumer experience, CX, Data analytics and health, Data standards, Design and health, Digital health, Digital transformation, Doctors, EHRs, Electronic health records, Electronic medical records, Health apps, Health care industry, Health care information technology, Health ecosystem, Health IT, Physicians, Population health, Quadruple Aim, Quintuple Aim, Risk management, Robots, Robots and health, Sustainability, Techquity, Transparency, User experience UX, Value based health, Voice technology
Health information technology professionals charged with selecting, implementing, updating, and paying for health IT in hospital and care delivery settings are essentially the first-line “consumers” of health IT – specifically, electronic health records. But these health IT leaders feel far from empowered and choiceful as consumers in todays EHR vendor “monoculture,” Harm Scherpbier, MD, explains in his book, Unvendor. I spent time with Harm to discuss the book, its backstory, and what he hopes to accomplish by raising the issue of single-vendor health IT and how clinicians, health IT staff, and
Jane will deliver the keynote address at the upcoming Paradigm Management Services 2025 Innovation Summit in Nashville on 28th March. We'll focus on equitable outcomes in a changing society, addressing drivers of health, barriers to techquity, and opportunities for joyful collaborations for the health of all people.
Thank you, Jared Johnson, for including me on the list of the "Top Voices of Consumer-Centered Healthcare." Your curated community includes some of my closest colleagues and friends in the field to whom I also turn for that health consumer-focused lens. The patient - consumer, caregiver, health citizen - is the primary noun in health/care and self-care is primary care. My thanks for this call-out, JJ!
I am so grateful to Tom Lawry for asking me to pen the foreword for his book, Health Care Nation, which will be published in late March 2025. Tom, known for his pioneering leadership in AI, has rediscovered his voice for health policy -- and health citizenship. He is asking Big Questions and asking us to do the same -- and act on those insights for our own health, the health of people we love, and the health of our fellow health citizens. The uplifting subtitle: "The future is calling and it's better than you think." Onward!