Meaningful Use Stage 2 Final Rule Word Cloud
If you remember, back in the day I created a word cloud of the proposed Meaningful Use Stage 1 rule. The obvious implications of that visualization were that the government really wanted to dangle lots of money in front of healthcare organizations in order to use EHRs. Yet, despite initially touting the benefits to the patient of an EHR, the word cloud showed that the patient came way behind the money. Cynicism followed in the community.
Stage 2 came out a little while ago and I decided to see if this Meaningful Use business had changed its tune. Lo and behold it has. Now, terms like “Reporting” and “Measure” are still the heavy hitters in terms of frequency of the rule, but notice how the term “Patient” or “Patients” is actually now visible without too much searching? If you had a more advanced word cloud generator (sorry Wordle, I think you’re great!), and combined the plural version of “Patient”, you’d see it even more. It could even eclipse the term “Payment” in size. Progress! The term “Health” has even decided to show itself a little more these days.
This is cause for some celebration. Hopefully Stage 3 brings this up even more.
Aaron Berdofe, MHI - Health Informatics 