Organizations devoted to health IT are offering their kudos to theDepartment of Health and Human Services for its plan to support trialimplementations for the Nationwide Health Information Network (NHIN) in2007.

As part of a last-ditch, early morning effort that went into the weehours on Saturday morning, Congress approved legislation that both putan end to the 5.1 percent Medicare payments cuts for doctors plannedfor 2007 and called for the adoption of a new quality reporting systemfor implementation in 2008.

A resounding 85 percent of readers responding to last week’s poll feelthat the chances of health IT legislation become law in 2007 aregreater with the Democrats in charge of the House and Senate.

The cost of making the switch to electronic records and imaging has decreased drastically in recent years — but implementing new technology is never a simple process.

Of readers responding to last week’s Health Imaging News poll,just under 37 percent believe that radiology informatics will be thebiggest topic discussed at the show this week at the annual RSNAmeeting in Chicago.