IOM calls on federal funds for technology demo projects

A report by the council lays out the groundwork for the creation of a national health information network.

By Tyler Chin, AMNews staff. Dec. 16, 2002.

The Institute of Medicine has recommended that the federal government fund up to 10 health care technology demonstration projects in 2003 that would serve as "building blocks" to a national health information structure.

The projects would involve the creation of state-of-the-art health care information and communication infrastructures that patients, doctors and others could use to communicate with each other, according to an IOM report, "Fostering Rapid Advances in Health Care: Learning from System Demonstrations."

The report, released in response to a request by Dept. of Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson for "bold ideas" to address the serious problems facing the health care industry, identified information technology as one of five areas offering the greatest potential for improving the American health system.

The IOM also recommended that the government fund demonstration projects that might offer models for expanded insurance coverage, liability reform, chronic-disease management and primary care enhancement.

Other federal advisory bodies have long recommended creation of a national health information infrastructure, but the IOM report lays out a road map to reach that objective, said William W. Stead, MD, director of the Informatics Center at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tenn., and member of the IOM committee that wrote the report. [...]