U.S. House Committee on Science and Technology Chairman Bart Gordon has introduced legislation authorizing the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to establish guidelines and mechanisms to promote the integration of the healthcare information enterprise in the United States. "The U.S. boasts the finest healthcare system in the world, yet doctors and patients still don't have access to comprehensive health information. Healthcare is the fastest growing sector of the U.S. economy, but it's also the only major sector that hasn't fully integrated information technology," said Gordon. Gordon's bill -- H.R. 2406 -- is based upon comments gathered from industry stake-holders, patient advocates and widely-acknowledged recommendations made by both the President's Information Technology Advisory Committee in their report, Revolutionizing Healthcare through Information Technology as well as the National Academies report, Building a Better Delivery System: A New Engineering/Health Care Partnership.
(May 23, 2007) <Back to top>