HHS is continuing its drive to encourage technology adoption in the healthcare industry, according to an update by research group CCH Health Care. The group quotes from this month's GAO review of HHS progress on healthcare IT over the past year, noting that the department has awarded $42 million in contracts intended to develop new standards and test the practicality of large scale health information networks. Key accomplishments include the establishment of the American Health Information Community, the quasi-private group which policy makers hope will act as a catalyst in the drive to convince physicians and hospitals to embrace technology. The agency also granted more institutional authority to the office of the Health IT Coordinator, which as all good FierceHealthcare readers know, is the domain of our "main man" Dr. David Brailer.
- see this article from CCH Health Care
- read the rather more detailed GAO report (.pdf)