Venue: The Fuqua School of Business, Duke University, 1 Towerview Drive, Durham, NC 27708-0120

 

Presentation

Can Healthcare IT Save Babies?

Authors: Amalia R Miller (University of Virginia); Catherine E. Tucker (MIT)

Presenter: Amalia R Miller (University of Virginia)

Session: Poster Session

Room: Kirby Winter Garden

When: Monday 2:30 p.m. - 3:15 p.m.

The US has a higher infant mortality rate than most other developed nations. Electronic medical records (EMR) and other healthcare information technology (IT) improvements could reduce that rate, by standardizing treatment options and improving monitoring. We use variations in state medical privacy laws that affect the usefulness of healthcare IT, to quantify empirically how much healthcare IT improves neonatal outcomes. We find that adoption of healthcare IT by an additional hospital in a county reduces infant mortality in that county by between 5 and 18 deaths per 100,000 live births. The gains for African-Americans are double those for Whites. We also find that adoption of radiological information systems in particular matters more in counties with above-average ultrasound use.