What does agriculture have to do with healthcare reform?
New Yorker writer and surgeon Atul Gawande takes a look
In The New Yorker issue of December 14, 2009, Atuk Gawande, a New Yorker staff writer and Harvard surgeon, looks at the healthcare reform bill in the US Senate and compares it to the successful history of the US Department of Agriculture’s Extension program in the 20th century. Gawande also talked to the agricultural agent for his home town, Athens, Ohio, where Gawande’s parents are retired physicians. It’s a story of town by town–farm by farm–work sharing knowledgable advice locally, learning by example, and using subject matter experts.  And while the Senate bill contains a “hodgepodge” of trial programs, Gawande concludes that mix is a necessary formula for reforming healthcare. 

In reference to digitization of health information, Gawande states “Among the most important, and least noticed, provisions in the reform legislation is one in the House bill to expand our ability to collect national health statistics. The poverty of our health-care information is an embarrassment.” While Electronic Health Records are not the focus of this article,  the Ag Department’s Extension program was the model for ONC’s Regional Extension Center Program, and the article is worth reading for understanding that role.

For more on ONC’s Regional Extension Centers, see e-Healthcare Marketing archives.