Health IT Deployment Demands Federal Funding, Expo Told
Use of health information technology, such as design and implementation of networks to share patient data, can’t mature without federal funding, speakers said Thursday at the Health Technology Showcase in Washington. The FCC role in expanding use of electronic health data is to push broadband deployment, said Commissioner Deborah Tate, calling an existing agency program for helping rural health care providers cover telecom and Internet costs “greatly underutilized.”
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Lack of standards on privacy and other aspects and a “huge capital problem” hurt progress, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) said, adding that care providers can’t afford to upgrade the technology. “We are in real trouble as a country and we're going to be forced to make savage cuts… so now’s the time” to digitize, said Whitehouse.
The key is convincing Americans and their politicians that electronic health data are more secure than paper, said Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-R.I.). When Congress does take up the matter it should bar mining and sale of patient data, he said. Federal funding to upgrade health information technology could be mandated via FDA reauthorization legislation, he said. “We have to think of it in the context of how we're going to save,” Kennedy said: “If we invest now, we recoup those savings and we're able to provide more health care.”
The FCC “has a far broader role in health care than most Americans realize,” from helping to assure medical device safety to promoting use of broadband networks that support e- health services, said FCC Commissioner Deborah Tate. Tate stood in for Chairman Kevin Martin, attending to a new baby. “It’s the chairman’s vision that one day every healthcare facility will be connected to one another through broadband,” Tate said: “The Commission is committed to providing the framework.” From remote surgery to teledentistry, the goal is to “narrow the miles between doctor and patient,” she said. The FCC Universal Service Fund Rural Health Care program, in place since 1997, is “greatly underutilized,” she said. The program, which helps rural providers cover the cost of telecom and Internet service, had $400 million available in 2006 but only disbursed $40 million, she said: “In many rural areas, broadband is not being deployed to rural health care providers… partly because they bear investment costs but don’t receive full benefits.”