health information technology Committee hearing 6/30

[TayTay]

Maybe this is General enough for GD. I did get a reply!

http://commerce.senate.gov/hearings/witnesslist.cfm?id=...
Health Information Technology
Technology, Innovation, and Competitiveness Hearing
Thursday, June 30 2005 - 9:30 AM - SR-253

Description: On Thursday, June 30, at 9:30 a.m., in room 253 of the Russell Building, the Subcommittee on Technology, Innovation, and Competitiveness will hold a hearing on health information technology. The hearing will examine how information technology can reduce medical errors, lower healthcare costs, and improve the quality of patient care. More specifically, this hearing will discuss the importance of developing interoperable electronic medical records and highlight new technologies that will impact how health services are provided in the future. This hearing will not focus on any particular legislative proposal. Witnesses include:

Panel 1:

Senator Mike Enzi (R-WY)
Senator Debbie Stabenow (D-MI)

Panel 2:

Dr. David Brailer
National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

Dr. Carolyn Clancy
Director of the Agency for the Healthcare Research and Quality, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

Dr. Hratch G. Semerjian
Acting Director, National Institute of Standards and Technology

Dr. Robert M. Kolodner
Acting Chief Informatics Officer, Veterans Health Administration

Panel 3:

Ms. Susan Bostrom
Senior Vice President, Cisco Systems, Inc.

Dr. John Glaser
Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer, Partner HealthCare System, Inc.

Dr. Peter Basch
Medical Director for e-Health, MedStar Health

Ms. Pamela Pure
Executive Vice President, McKesson Corporation

Ms. Karen Ignagni
President & CEO, America's Health Insurance Plans

[katinmn]

1. I hope they address uniform standards

Electronic Medical Records do prevent errors and make medical practices more efficient. However, less that 15 percent of physicians have adopted full-scale EMR technology primarily because:

Hospitals, clinics and labs must be on the same systems and be able to communicate with each other. Physicians and large health systems are afraid to invest in technology and training when they may have to scrap it when and if a new standard is adopted and is made mandatory.

Costs.

Possible instability of vendors. There is no open source providers of the technology.

Privacy issues.