Health IT Advances Hair Splitting

Consumer or individual? When it comes to health care, which are you?

In the eyes of the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, which is developing strategies for engaging the public in embracing the power of health IT, you're a "consumer." But Jodi G. Daniel, director of the ONC's Office of Policy and Planning, wonders in a Nov. 19 post in the ONC Health IT Buzz Blog if that's the best term.

"Calling people consumers implies that they are necessarily consuming something," she writes, "whereas an individual may not need to consume anything (health care or otherwise) to manage his/her health more effectively. What do you think?"

Responses have been mixed. One writer suggested "person" or "people." Another said "individual" is better than "consumer," but suggested a better option might be "patient." A third simply appreciated the ONC's efforts to engage the public in the discussion about how health IT will affect their lives.

As it now stands, McDaniel wrote, the strategic-planning goal is to "empower consumers with health IT to improve their health and the health care system." Revisions are ongoing, but the proposed objectives in meeting that goal are:

• Engage consumers with health IT.
• Accelerate consumers' and caregivers' access to their electronic health information in a format they can use and reuse.
• Encourage innovation in the capture and usefulness of consumer health information.
• Integrate consumer health information and consumer health IT with clinical applications.