Pediatrics has unique EMR and HIT needs

What works for adults may not be so suitable for children. That's the lesson of a new report on health IT for pediatric care from two California research organizations.

"Children have different health needs, are often served by different caregivers and in different care settings, and in some cases require HIT with different functionality than adults," says the report, a joint effort of the Health Technology Center and The Children's Partnership.

Without even glancing at the study, we could tell you that for one thing, pediatric EMRs need special functions like weight-based medication dosing and vaccination records reporting that schools and public health agencies often require. But this report offers four broad recommendations aimed at California's estimated 10 million youngsters, according to Healthcare IT News:

1. Development of a comprehensive strategic plan to benefit from the federal health IT stimulus that accounts for specific needs of children;
2. Prioritization of IT solutions in terms of their relevance to children;
3. Development of privacy and data-exchange standards for child and family health information;
4. Consideration of relevant policy changes.

For more:
- check out this Healthcare IT News story
- download the report