WIHI: The Digital Transformation: How Technology Is Helping (and Hurting) Health Care

​​​​​​​​​​​​Date: June 1, 2017

Featuring: 

• Bob Wachter, MD, Chair, Department of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco
• Tejal Gandhi, MD, Chief Clinical and Safety Officer, Institute for Healthcare Improvement

Technology is everywhere in health care — and for many reasons, that's a good thing. It's fast, it's efficient, and it can reduce errors. And yet, technology is not a cure-all. It can make people complacent, introduce new errors, and get in the way of meaningful face-to-face interactions.

 

World-renowned patient safety experts Bob Wachter and Tejal Gandhi shared what they're learning about technology's impact (both positive and negative) on our industry. Wachter, the author of The Digital Doctor, discussed the computer's role in the exam room, the potential of electronic health records, the exciting world of wearables, and the patient and provider frustrations technology is causing. Gandhi, former president of the National Patient Safety Foundation and part of the expert panel that created Free from Harm: Accelerating Patient Safety Improvement Fifteen Years after To Err is Human, honed in on technology's growing influence on patient safety. 

 

Technology is here to stay and we need to learn how to get the most value from the digital world that health care increasingly relies upon. That was the  focus of our conversation on the June 1 WIHI, The Digital Transformation: How Technology Is Helping (and Hurting) Health Care.