Senate hopes for electronic medical records within 5 years

Today the Senate Judiciary Committee met to discuss “Health IT: Protecting American’s Privacy in the Digital Age.” The committee spoke of plans to bring about a nation-wide health IT infrastructure.

Digitizing health care records would decrease inefficiencies in the system, bring down costs, and allow more people access to health care, according to Senator Cardin (D- MD). However, he also stated that healthcare information privacy is a primary concern, and legislation must be put in place to ensure the protection of this information. Deven McGraw, director for the Center for Democracy and Technology’s Health Privacy Project stated that the “information superhighway for health” could be an attractive target for people who would use it for inappropriate purposes.

Addressing these privacy concerns, Michael Stokes, the principle lead program manager of the Microsoft Corporation’s Health Vault stated that the key ingredients to a nationalized digital healthcare record are “transparency, control, and security.” With these measures, consumers will be assured the privacy of their health records and willing to participate in this program.