The U.S. House of Representatives last week passed the HealthInformation Technology Promotion Act of 2006 (H.R. 4157), a bill thatsets out to improve care, reduce medical errors, and ease the exchangeof essential health information via health IT adoption, and theimplementation of standards, among other tactics.

U.S. Representative Pete Stark (D-Calif.), the ranking Democrat on theWays and Means Health Subcommittee, yesterday introduced a bill thataims to provide universal health coverage based on the Medicare modeland employer-based system already in place.

Over half of the U.S. states are either planning or under-way withhealth IT (HIT) adoption or health information exchange initiatives,with seven additional states now in the implementation process,according to new survey findings from the eHealth Initiative and itsFoundation (eHI). 

The vision of how health IT should become a reality for clinicians andpatients has not changed much in several decades, according to EdwardShortliffe, MD, PhD, of the College of Physicians and Surgeons,Columbia University.

Unlike many industries that have already broadly adopted informationtechnology (IT) as an essential ingredient of day-to-day business, thehealthcare industry’s use of IT is like “a late bloom of a tardychild,” said Molly J. Coye, MD, MDH, CEO and founder, HealthTech, anon-profit research and education organization that develops objectivetechnology forecasts for healthcare.

Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich recently delivered testimonyto the U.S. Senate covering his vision of top priorities in assistinghealth IT towards a healthcare transformation in the United States.

Digital dashboards — akin to a built-in air traffic controller — offer a software solution to common radiology business bottlenecks.