Recommendation 6-2. Public- and private-sector individuals, including organizational leaders in M/SU health care, should become involved in, and provide for staff involvement in, major national committees and initiatives working to set health care data and information technology standards to ensure that the unique needs of M/SU health care are designed into these initiatives at their earliest stages.

Aim of efficiency—avoiding waste of equipment, supplies, ideas, and energy.

Recommendation 6-4. … state governments, (and) public-sector … purchasers of M/SU health care … should encourage the widespread adoption of electronic health records, computer-based clinical decision-support systems, computerized provider order entry, and other forms of information technology for M/SU care by:

• Offering financial incentives to individual M/SU clinicians and organizations for investments in information technology needed to participate fully in the emerging NHII.

• Providing capital and other incentives for the development of virtual networks to give individual and small-group providers standard access to software, clinical and population data and health records, and billing and clinical decision-support systems.

• Providing financial support for continuing technical assistance, training, and information technology maintenance.

• Including in purchasing decisions an assessment of the use of information technology by clinicians and health care organizations for clinical decision support, electronic health records, and other quality improvement applications.

Aim of safety—avoiding injuries to patients from the care that is intended to help them.

Aim of efficiency (see above).

Rule 10. Cooperation among clinicians (see above).

Recommendation 8-1. … state legislatures should improve coverage by enacting a form of benefit standardization known as parity for coverage of M/SU treatment.

Aim of effectiveness—providing services based on scientific knowledge to all who could benefit and refraining from providing services to those not likely to benefit (avoiding underuse and overuse, respectively).