• Home
• Analysis
• Policy
• Central Government
• Local Government
• Healthcare
• Education
• Digital Inclusion
• Technology
• Security

Healthcare

US Congress pressed on the importance of healthcare IT

By Jianggan Li | 28 September 2009

Health IT advocates and stakeholders congregated in the Capitol Hill last week, in an effort to “raise national attention on the importance of health IT in healthcare reform”.

National Health IT Week 2009, supported by a number of public and private organisations in the country, took place between September 21st and 25th in Washington DC. Activities, including a range of events focusing on different areas of health IT promotion put together by different organisations, focused on developments surrounding the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) and healthcare reform.

Under the ARRA framework, grants and timelines are provided for care providers to adopt ‘meaningful use of health IT’.

The Congress and the administration should “continue to support [health IT] via legislation, grants and agency guidance, especially with the logistics of applying for funding and adopting electronic health records,” said Representative Patrick Kennedy, member of the Congress Committee on Labour, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies.

Asking the Congress to assure that health IT becomes part of the culture at hospitals and medical practices, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse said, “We have to make sure we are not lifting all boats just a little bit”.

“Across all other industries, we have seen how information infrastructure works for the American consumer,” Senator Whitehouse added.

An advocacy group called ‘Health IT Now!’ pledged to continue to advocate for health IT to be included in any further healthcare reform legislation.

“There is strong and high level attention on health IT in the US,” comments Professor Jialin Liu, Director of Health Informatics at West China Hospital and guest blogger of FutureGov who is currently a visiting scholar at Harvard Medical School. “The investment they dedicate to health IT is also significant.”

Professor Liu hopes that continuous high-level attention will also be seen in all parts of Asia.

---