Progress Toward Meaningful Use of Health Information Technology Among Rural Physician Practices

Research center:
Lead researcher:
Contact:
Project funded:
September 2011
Project completed:
December 2013
Statement of the problem: Currently, little is known about the extent of EHR adoption by rural physician practices, their intentions to apply for meaningful use incentive payments or their likelihood of achieving meaningful use within established timeframes.

Project goals: The purpose of this project is to assess progress toward the meaningful use of health information technology (IT) among rural physician practices.

Methods: We will employ regression techniques to measure progress towards the meaningful use of health IT in rural physician practices. Our analysis will employ a novel database of physician practice health IT data, the IMS Healthcare Organization Services database. These data will be supplemented with additional sources, including: the AHA Health IT Supplement; the National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey; and the Area Resource File.

Anticipated Publications or Products: A peer-reviewed journal manuscript and abstracts for presentations at regional and/or national conferences.

Publications