October 2009

National health information technology coordinator David Blumenthal emphasized that the ability of clinicians to amass, analyze and report healthcare quality measures lays at the heart of his office's strategy for using IT to transform the US healthcare system. "The key to meaningful use is to know how to measure for performance and to be able to give feedback to providers," he said Oct. 15 at a conference sponsored by the National Quality Forum, which promotes and develops quality measures. The aim is to take existing quality measures and convert them into metrics that can be incorporated into electronic health records in a standard form so they can be compared across practices and geography, he said. "We expect that to be an ever more important requirement to improve healthcare," Blumenthal said, adding that the National Quality Forum is retooling some existing measures for use in electronic health records.

A patchwork of state rules for accrediting colleges and universities -- some more lax than others -- remain a roadblock for a national standard that online school officials have lobbied for since the early 1980s. Although some states abide by standards that prove "intrusive" and burdensome to schools seeking accreditation, other states "have little or no regulatory schema, and institutions can operate in an unfettered way," according to a task force report issued by the Presidents' Forum, which has met since 2004 to discuss challenges for decision makers at online postsecondary schools.

The House Commerce Committee approved bills to increase the number of low-power FM radio stations and extend a program to fund interoperable communications. Both had passed easily in the Communications Subcommittee the week before. On voice votes, the committee approved and reported favorably to the House the Local Community Radio Act and the Public Safety Interoperable Communications Act. The first bill, long opposed by broadcasters, reduces the channel separation between low-power and full-power stations to allow more of the former to share the band with the latter. The second bill provides a two-year extension for making use of up to $1 billion in government funding for state and local interoperable communications systems. The money comes from the auction of the 700 mHz DTV spectrum. The bill does not increase the funds, but allows states and localities another two years to make use of them.

H.R. 1147, the "Local Community Radio Act of 2009", Bill Text - Reported favorably by a voice vote

H.R. 3633, the Public Safety Interoperable Communications Grant Program Extension Act of 2009 - Reported favorably by a voice vote

Ex-AT&T executive Jim Ryan is now the chief strategy and marketing officer of Motricity, which provides storefront, portal and browser services to carriers. On how users should pay for mobile content and other services, Ryan is clear: Users should pay for content and services they access on mobile devices -- and the carrier should get a cut of the revenues. "My hope is that the mobile Internet does not go down the path of re-creating the Internet. The Internet treats the end user as a means to an end." By that, he means that most users believe their presence alone on a site should generate enough revenues from ads. Of course, some content providers believe that, too. "That's flawed....The Internet did teach us some bad habits." Ryan says content providers should be charging, especially on mobile where the service can be more personalized and tailored to a interests and habits. "People will be more than willing to pay," he said. "I want to pay for a news service that will deliver the top 10-15 stories that matter to me the most. I want them to be researched and well-written. I will pay money for that."