One of the most well-funded and talked-about health IT projects takes a giant step forward this week (hopefully), as Britain's National Health Service officially launches the $10.9 billion Connecting for Health Initiative. The project is widely considered to be one of the most forward-thinking attempts to build a national health infrastructure yet. 'Choose and Book' gives patients the ability to set up appointments with specialists quickly. The system does all the right things, pushing e-prescribing, data collection and online access to digital images. Ultimately, the entire country will move to a N3, a single broadband network. The problem appears to be that enthusiasm for the whole thing may be waning. A survey last week shows 57 percent of physicians opposed to the project. That may provide a glimpse of what lies in store for the U.S. as efforts to promote a national health information infrastructure continue, argue critics.
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