Political pressure and public demand are forcing European government and regulatory authorities to put more money into healthcare information technology.

Back in February this year, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) allocated roughly $19.2 billion for investment in EHR technology in the U.S. These funding provisions, contained in the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act,allow for providers and hospitals to be awarded funds for EHR implementation when demonstrating meaningful use of the technology.The goal, set by the Obama Administration at that time, is to have nationwide use of EHRS by 2014.

Michigan Governor Jennifer M. Granholm announced Monday that the state will apply for funding through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) to improve healthcare quality, reduce costs and enhance patient privacy through electronic exchange of health information.

The Institute of Medicines (IOM) Subcommittee on Standardized Collection of Race/Ethnicity Data for Healthcare Quality Improvement has recommended that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) develop and disperse lists of narrowly defined ethnic categories, as well as written and spoken languages, as part of an effort to standardize the collection of information on patient race, ethnicity and language.

By the end of the 2008 fiscal year, 50 percent of Wisconsin hospitals were considered to be high users of health ITa 25 percent increase over 2007, according to the Wisconsin Health Associations Annual Survey of Hospitals.

The U.S. market for medical automation technologies is worth about $13.1 billion in 2009, and is expected to reach $23.2 billion in 2014, demonstrating a compound annual growth rate of 12.2 percent, according to a market research report from BCC Research.

An editorial in the Annals of Internal Medicine is calling for a significant collaborative effort on the part of health information technology stakeholders, to realize the full promise of health IT.

Three Indiana and Ohio organizations have started sending clinical test results, reports and other medical information among their health information exchanges (HIE) in what is thought to be the countrys first live, multiregion clinical information exchange.