Gingrich's grand vision: A medical world without paper

The former House speaker is crusading for a Web-based national health information infrastructure. He wants every physician to ditch paper and start using an electronic medical record within 10 years.

By Tyler Chin, AMNews staff. Aug. 9, 2004.

Newt Gingrich is a man who always had big plans. When few thought the Republican party could wrest control of the House of Representatives in 1994, he sold the electorate on his "Contract with America," leading his party to a majority victory and getting nine out of the 10 items in the contract enacted into law.

Unfortunately for Gingrich, the bottom fell out when he had to pay a $300,000 fine imposed by the House for ethics violations stemming from a book deal, and when the electorate, in a possible backlash over Republicans' role in the impeachment of then-President Clinton over the Monica Lewinsky scandal, elected more Democrats to the House. Although the GOP retained control, Gingrich resigned as speaker in January 1999 and left the House.

The setbacks haven't stopped Gingrich from making more grand plans. Now he's trying to sell the country on a Web-based national health information infrastructure.

"The more I looked at health in 1999, the clearer it was that it was an area that badly needed a transformational approach that would bring it into the 21st century in terms of information technology and quality systems and best practices," Gingrich said. "No serious person can debate that having disaggregated paper records isn't an invitation to killing people."

To promote information technology in health care, Gingrich has written a book, Saving Lives and Saving Money, and founded the for-profit Center for Health Transformation, an organization whose members, which include health technology companies, pay $1,000 to $200,000 to join. Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D, R.I.) has said he plans to introduce Gingrich-backed legislation to implement a paperless health care system by 2015.