Sebelius champions national health IT system

Gov Kathleen Sebelius (D-Kansas), President Barack Obama's nominee to Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, characterized spending on health information technology as crucial in the overall effort to reform US health care. Sebelius, at her confirmation hearing before the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, said health IT "lays the foundation for a 21st-century system to reduce medical errors, lower health care costs, and empower health consumers." Gov Sebelius said HHS's agenda for the next five years will include setting standards for privacy and interoperability, testing models and certifying technology, and offering incentives for hospitals and doctors to adopt health IT. "The goal," Sebelius said, "is to provide every American with a safe, secure electronic health record by 2014." The nominee also endorsed efforts to use data gleaned from electronic medical records to conduct "comparative effectiveness research to provide information on the relative strengths and weaknesses of alternative medical interventions to health providers and consumers."