Originally Published MX January/February 2005
EDITOR'S PAGE
Brailer's Goose Egg
Last May, David J. Brailer, MD, was named the first occupant of the office of national coordinator for health information technology (ONCHIT).
Since then, Brailer has become an active and outspoken proponent of the goal of creating a national healthcare IT infrastructure, which was announced in April by then-secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Tommy Thompson, who resigned in December. But leadership requires a lot more than just personality—like funding.
Funding for ONCHIT projects was expected to be included in the omnibus federal appropriations bill for fiscal 2005. The legislation designated $50 million to support healthcare IT demonstration projects, the development of interoperability standards, and a program to certify the interoperability of IT-based healthcare products.
But at the beginning of December, Congress disappointed many in the healthcare IT community by dropping ONCHIT's funding from the final version of the appropriations bill. Former speaker of the house and healthcare IT proponent Newt Gingrich, now director of the Center for Health Transformation (Washington, DC), called the denial of funding "a disgrace." And the American Health Information Management Association (Chicago) urged HHS to fill the funding void by using whatever undesignated or unspent discretionary funds might be available.
Some analysts have suggested that the absence of ONCHIT's modest funding will have little effect on the development of healthcare IT. It is certainly true that the healthcare sector—including the medical device industry—is spending vastly greater sums to develop and implement healthcare IT systems.
But if the government is serious about playing a leadership role in this sector, federal funding is essential. Assuming that President Bush's nominee, Mark Leavitt, is confirmed as the next secretary of HHS, as is widely expected, assigning funding for ONCHIT should be high on his list of priorities.
Copyright ©2005 MX
