December 01, 2007

House Speaker interested in developing nationwide electronic healthcare network.

BY Dr. Keith J. Kaplan
      Oregon’s Portland Tribune (11/28, Savickas) reports that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), speaking before an Oregon Health & Science University audience, "promote[d] new [information] technology," maintaining that it "will improve healthcare and cut medical errors."  Pelosi also maintained that "Oregon could become a leader in the technology to create a secure healthcare computer network that allows medical records to be shared easily from doctor to doctor."  State officials, including Oregon governor Ted Kulongoski (D) and U.S. Rep. David Wu (D-Hillsdale), also champion "computerized medical records."  Inspired by Pelosi’s Innovation Agenda for America proposal, "Wu proposed legislation to create a health information technology research and work force training system bill.  The measure has passed the House and is awaiting consideration in the Senate."
      Oregon Public Broadcasting (11/28, Foden-Vencil) reports that Pelosi maintained that she "and others want to develop a nationwide computer format" that facilitates sharing [health] records. She added, "This has been an initiative of a couple of years and I can think of no day in all of that period of time that has been more inspiring or more encouraging than what I heard here today."
      FCC grant helps create broadband healthcare network linking rural, urban Oregon communities.   The Portland Business Journal (11/28) reports, "A coalition of organizations has landed a $20 million grant from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to link more than 300 Oregon healthcare facilities in urban, rural and frontier communities through broadband connections."  Once completed, the "network will connect Oregon hospitals, clinics, county public health offices, physicians, mental health, dental and optical clinics, and health education institutions, including community colleges, with a level of interactive service and access unavailable in most rural communities."  Working under its Rural Health Care Pilot Program, the FCC plans to use $417 million to continue to create "statewide or regional broadband tele-health networks" across the country.
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