Sunday, January 11, 2009

Week Ahead: Health IT, Internet Issues

Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., will chair a hearing of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee Thursday that will focus on the development of a nationwide system of electronic medical records. HELP Chairman Edward Kennedy and ranking member Michael Enzi sponsored health IT legislation in the 110th Congress but cost and privacy concerns stalled the bill and it never reached the floor. Key Senate staffers have been discussing how such language might be incorporated into a forthcoming economic stimulus package. This is the first in a series of hearings planned by Mikulski who was tapped by Kennedy to lead a Senate work group on improving health care quality.

Witnesses include Jack Cochran, executive director of the Permanente Federation; National Quality Forum President Janet Corrigan; Government Accounting Office IT Director Valerie Melvin; Microsoft Health Solutions Vice President Peter Neupert; and the Health Leadership Council's Mary Grealey. In related news, Booz Allen Hamilton will hold a health IT briefing Monday on a study that calls for "a consumer-centered, quality healthcare system." Speakers include Booz Allen officials and representatives from the Federation of American Hospitals, American Medical Informatics Association and Vanderbilt University.

Meanwhile, technology policy experts and industry leaders will flock to Washington Wednesday to hear about a host of hot topics facing lawmakers and President-elect Barack Obama's administration this year. This year's Congressional Internet Caucus State of the Net conference will include remarks by a senior representative of Obama's transition team who will be announced by Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Va., the incoming chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Telecommunications and the Internet Subcommittee.

The luncheon keynote will feature a discussion with Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., and Josh Silverman, president of Internet phone company Skype. John Palfrey, who runs Harvard University's Berkman Center for Internet and Society will also present the final report and recommendations of a high-profile task force whose members have worked for a year to examine how safe the Internet is for children.