How Meaningful Use Impacts Patient Engagement

Legislators and staffers saw it as an opportunity to advance the long-term goal of getting more hospitals and physicians to implement electronic health record (EHRs). As early as the 1970s, when Senator Ted Kennedy asked the Office of Science in the Public Interest to investigate how information technology might impact healthcare, policy makers and practitioners alike had been dreaming of the day when healthcare would go digital. Meaningful Use has advanced key aspects of patient engagement. The concept of Meaningful Use was originally developed by the National Quality Forum (NQF), which released a report in 2008 identifying areas of healthcare that needed improvements. Meaningful use has done a great deal to drive the adoption of electronic health records and provide consumers with access to their data in a meaningful way. Although there is still a significant distance to travel, Meaningful Use is helping to transform healthcare for patients, providers, and the system as a whole.