At the 2015 AMA Annual Meeting, Robert Wah, MD, president of the American Medical Association, outlined key challenges facing healthcare, including a special emphasis on health IT.
"I'm honored to speak to you as I complete my term as your president about what we've achieved, where we've progressed and where there's yet work to be done," Dr. Wah said.
While Dr. Wah voiced his optimism for the future, through the metaphor of the movie series "Back to the Future," he also indicated frustrations with current federal regulations, specifically those centered on health IT.
Dr. Wah alluded to a scene in "Back to the Future" where Marty McFly and Doc Brown walk by a storefront window with a sign saying "Fax here."
"That gives a pretty big laugh unless you're in a practice that's still faxing paper records back and forth because electronic records can't interact, can't interoperate without side systems," Dr. Wah said. "While the AMA and the broader physician community strongly supports the use of tech to improve the health of our patients, the meaningful use requirements for EHRs are a heavy burden and a prison for innovation."
He suggests instead that EHR need to be interoperable, and physician-patient interactions need to be encouraged. Team care and coordination, and streamlined workload and payment can help to create a better healthcare future.
However, Dr. Wah also mentioned another challenge, which he equates to Biff the Bully: ICD-10.
"We believe ICD-10 will further disrupt physician practices when they're already facing headaches like meaningful use. Nonetheless, Congress and the [Obama] administration seems intent on implementing them on Oct. 1," Dr. Wah said. "End-to-end testing showed clams acceptance rates would drop from 97 percent to 81 percent if ICD-10 were implemented today. That's a 20 percent failure. And that's among the doctors who volunteered, the ones who sit in the front of the class waving their hands."
Dr. Wah said the AMA will continue to urge more testing, a grace period, hardship exemptions and advanced payment authorities to reduce the potential for cash flow issues.
"The challenge of changes swirls all around us," Dr. Wah said. "We need to see it as an opportunity to maximize those opportunities. IT will take hard work, imagination and creativity."
To watch Dr. Wah's full address, click here.
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