A discussion paper from a work group affiliated with the Institute of Medicine proposes ways to report clinicians' experiences using health information technology. Such a reporting system could forestall the development of federal regulations targeting IT vendors, the paper's authors said.
The authors of the 11-page "Comparative User Experiences of Health IT Products: How User Experiences Would Be Reported and Used" (PDF), propose "a voluntary, multimodal, multistakeholder approach" to health IT safety reporting, including the reporting of patient safety hazards introduced by the use of IT systems.
A voluntary system "may deter a more heavy-handed approach to regulating health IT vendors," wrote the authors. "Regulation by the Food and Drug Administration is a serious possibility on the horizon if improvement in health IT safety and usability is not achieved through a voluntary process."