W Edward HAMMOND
- Board Chair of HL7 and Professor Emeritus at Duke University

Speech Title:
The art of the Possible: What eHealth Can Enable

Abstract:
The problem with advancing through evolution is that usually the past has a strong influence on the present.  Progress is slow.  For over 50 years, computers have been introduced into the delivery of health care process.  In most cases, the computerized application has been an automation of the paper process and has been focused on specific tasks in a silo fashion.  During that same period, however, the delivery of health care and related areas has changed significantly.  We have moved from  a largely inpatient base to more ambulatory care; from acute to chronic; from illness to prevention to preemptive, and from provider-centric to patient-centric.

The shift to patient-centric care has increased the role of the patient or consumer in making decisions about their own treatment, has personalized care, and has required an aggregation of data about the patient from all sites of care. Significant advances in new types of diagnostic tests and new modalities of treatment have increased the required knowledge providers must have and understand to make the most appropriate use of technology.  Rising costs of health care without a comparable increase of quality and better outcomes add an additional constraint.

The application of information technology or eHealth to these problems requires our stepping back and defining the problem anew.  New concepts and new application of technology can have a profound impact on health, quality and length of life, costs, efficiency and effectiveness, and safety. Emphases shift to public health, to disease surveillance, to personalized health plans based on risk factors derived from genomic, clinical and behavioral data.  Concepts of eHealth can contribute to longer independence and self-sustainability of an aging population. Analyses of clinical data that includes geocoding permit a better understanding of environmental and social factors impact on the cause and course of disease. An eHealth system that provides cognitive support of both providers and patients is a realizable vision.  A new look, unbiased by the past, brings a bright future to all.
Bio:
W. Ed Hammond is Professor-emeritus, Community and Family Medicine, School of Medicine and Professor-emeritus, Biomedical Engineering, Pratt School of Engineering at Duke University, Durham, NC.  He is an Adjunct Professor in the Health Sectors Management Division of the Fuqua School of Business. He has had extensive experience in the design and implementation of electronic health records, starting in 1970. He is a co-developer of The Medical Record (TMR), which functions in both inpatient and outpatient settings and is a clinical as well as a billing record system.  He is also involved in the development of health data standards and in the development of controlled vocabularies.

Dr. Hammond is Past President of the American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA). He has served on the AMIA Board since its beginning until 2004 and has served as Treasurer twice. He is the Chair of Health Level Seven having served twice before as Chair. He also was the Vice Chair of the HL7 Technical Steering Committee until mid 2007 and chair of the Advisory Committee. He was Chair of the Data Standards Working Group of the Connecting for Health Public-Private Consortium and serves on the Board of the eHealth Initiative. He is Chair of the Joint Initiative Council of ISO/CEN/HL7. Dr. Hammond served as a member of the Institute of Medicine Committee on Patient Safety Data Standards.  He also served as President of the American College of Medical Informatics, as Chair of the Computer-based Patient Record Institute and on the CPRI Board. He was a Chair of ACM SIGBIO for two terms. He served two terms as the Convenor of ISO Technical Committee 215, Working Group 2 and currently serves as Ambassador to Developing Countries.  He is chair of the Joint Initiative Council. He was a member of the National Library of Medicine Long Range Planning Committee and a member of the Healthcare Information Technology Advisory Panel of the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations.  He is an advisor to the American Hospital Association on health data standards and related matters, and he is a member of the Tolven Institute Governing Board.

Dr. Hammond has served and is serving on a number of editorial boards and has served on a number of NIH review committees. He has testified on a number of occasions for NCVHS and has presented to several IOM committees. The HL7 Volunteer of the Year Award is named after him. He is a fellow of American College of Medical Informatics (ACMI) and of the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering. He delivered the ACMI Distinguished Lecture in 2000. Dr. Hammond was awarded the Paul Ellwood Lifetime Achievement Award in 2003. He was awarded the ACMI Morris F. Collen Award of Excellence in November 2003. He has published over 300 technical articles.

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