The 463: Inside Tech Policy

The Rhetoric to Reality Divide (eHealth)

Yesterday, President Bush gave a speech to a small business conference in Washington, DC.  Among many other things, the president touched on how health care delivery and costs can be positively impacted by technology.   The president said:

...the health care field is not a very transparent place when it comes to price and quality.  I mean, how many of you really ever shopped for health care?  How many of you have ever actually gotten on the Internet and tried to compare price before you make a health care decision?  Not many, because, one, the system has somebody else paying the bills for you, and, two, there's not a lot of transparency.  So this government is going to continue to work with folks in the health care field to make sure that price and quality are available to you as a consumer.  It's amazing what happens when people have information at their fingertips before they make decisions.

The president is right, of course.  Yet, our guess is that the administration's view on this is aspirational rather than hey-we-have-the-tools-to-make-this-happen-today-ional. However, in a nice bit of well-timed coincidence, the Business 2.0 blog ran a bit yesterday on a new Web service called Healthia that:

Veterans Affairs CIO Steps Down

With the resignation of Veterans Affairs CIO Robert McFarland, one has to wonder the impact on the development of critical VA technology programs, most notably those in the area of eHealth and electronic patient records.  McFarland, who was tasked with consolidating all of the VA's IT budget within the CIO's office, reportedly left due to a dissastifaction with the pace in which the VA was moving forward on its IT re-organization.

Bush Plans New eHealth Push

President Bush is readying a major push to computerize the nation's medical records, including what is expected to be between $100 million and $200 million in funding for the program in the federal budget he will propose next month.  (New York Sun)

Keeping Score on eHealth Savings

You have to hand it to former Speaker Newt Gingrich.  This year he's been tireless in his push for transforming health care towards a 21st model with electronic health care records and a national health information network (check out his Center for Health Transformation).  And, while he tosses out the headline grabbing slogans like "Paper Kills" like few others, Gingrich is also never afraid to get down and geeky and fight at the level where only wonks dare tread.  He does this because as a former master of Congressional process, Newt knows that this where most of his former colleagues glaze over in boredom -- leaving only those who understand the complexities of the Hill to spur real change.

Case in point, Gingrich has an op-ed in the Washington Times today about an all-time, epically unsexy topic:  How the Congressional Budget Office scores the potential cost of legislation.   Here's how Gingrich frames it:

eHealth: Saving 49,000 Lives a Year

The research analysts at Gartner just released a list of technology predictions for the coming years.  One jumped out at us: 

"Healthcare has historically underinvested in IT, however, this is changing. Gartner analysts predict that by 2009, healthcare investments in IT will increase by more than 50 percent, which could enable clinicians to reduce the level of preventable deaths by 50 percent by 2013."

According to an Institute of Medicine study, anywhere between 44,000 and 98,000 die each year in U.S. hospitals due to medical errors making them the fifth to eighth leading cause of death in the country.  Additionally, medical errors, cost the U.S. health care system approximately $38 to 50 billion a year.   

Sometimes it's necessary to put a human face to these overwhelming statistics, consider this tragic story...      

Virginia's Governor Rightly Touts E-Health

Governor Mark Warner of Virginia gets it right in talking about e-health this week.  As reported in National Journal's Technology Daily, Governor Warner yesterday hailed the infusion of IT in healthcare as a means for companies to grow revenue.  Although he also said during the Virginia IT Symposium that "healthcare costs are making all American businesses less and less competitive."

He's right on:  Health IT can save money for companies but it can also save lives. Some estimates show that medical errors cost nearly 100,000 lives per year.  We can do better than that.  Warner went on to say: "It blows my mind that we have not brought the power of IT to our largest sector."

Kudos to the gov for being visionary when it comes to the potential power of e-health.

Read more about Governor Warner's efforts here.

Cisco on eHealth

Excerpts from a San Jose Mercury News op-ed from Cisco Healthcare Practice VP Dr. Jeffrey Rideout...

In the past 20 years, information technology has revolutionized virtually every facet of our lives. Unfortunately, one of the areas in which the revolution has been slow in coming is arguably the most important from a human and financial standpoint: our health care system.

There are signs that this is finally changing. Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt signaled this week that the Bush administration will play a strong role in driving health care IT standards that are crucial for electronic health records to gain traction. The adoption of electronic health records will do more than just streamline our health care system and curb costs. It also will enable clinicians and hospitals to gain better information about a patient's health history, which will improve medical care and save lives....

As Kentucky Goes, So Goes the Nation?

Dark horse Kentucky has moved to the front of the pack in states looking to lead in the development of eHealth systems.  Systems that provide the "safe, private" networked exchange of medical records between doctors, hospitals .  Last week, Kentucky's state Senate unanimously passed a health care information bill.  The bill is expected to be passed by the state's House and signed by their governor.

State Senator Daniel Mongiardo -- a practicing physician -- had the following to say about the bill in an op-ed...

Paper Kills

Former House speaker and firebrand Newt Gingrich is on another warpath. He's the founder of the Center of Health Transformation and is calling for a "total transformation of the healthcare industry" powered by informations technology says Danielle Belopotosky at National Journal's Technology Daily (subscription site).

Gingrich says that "electronic health records and the ability of healthcare technology systems to share information are keys to minimizing errors, reducing inefficiencies and improving care."

"Paper kills.  Show me a paper system and I'll show you a person dying needlessly," said Newt.

Tech: Helping Solve the Health Care Crisis?

National Journal Technology Daily's Danielle Belopotosky  today reports on what may be one of the bigger technology policy issues in the next decade:  Creating a standardized information technology system for the health care industry that allow all key parties to communicate and share information.

Think about it.  Technology has transformed key drivers of the economy like financial services, education and manufacturing, but it has barely made a dent in making our health care system more productive.