Election 2012
Healthcare IT News analyzed the personal political contributions from the 2011-2012 election cycle of more than 200 top executives at some of the nation's largest hospitals and healthcare systems. The results may surprise you.
With so much of America's healthcare future on the line after the election - partisan budget battles looming and talk of either moving forward with Obamacare or starting over under President Romney (depending what has happened at the ballot box by the time you read this) - one thing has stayed relatively stable over the past eight years, and hopefully will continue to: the bipartisan advancement of healthcare IT.
Data exchange makes strides, but much work remains
What parties are doing (or should be doing) to protect patient privacy in a digital age.
Moving the meaningful use of health IT forward has called for an increase in the workforce to provide doctors and hospitals with help establishing their EHRs.
Since 2005, some 60 million Americans have had their private health information compromised or disclosed electronically - a fact that has privacy experts, political players and consumers alike demanding reform.
A long, long time ago, way back in 2007, "presidential candidates in both parties were pledging to boost health IT," writes TIME magazine reporter Michael Grunwald in his book, The New New Deal: The Hidden Story of Change in the Obama Era (Simon & Schuster). "Several bipartisan bills were floating around Congress, and Hillary and Newt Gingrich were both hailing electronic medicine as the future of healthcare."
Mitt Romney is no stranger to health information technology advocacy. But despite his earlier initiatives as governor of Massachusetts, many experts say health IT policies and their funding could be at risk if he were elected president.
Third quarter results of a venture capital study conducted by Mercom Capital Group showed healthcare IT remaining strong for the fifth quarter in a row, and the outcome of the presidential election is not expected to change that, according to Raj Prabhu, managing partner of Mercom.
Instead of declaring the winners and losers of last night's vice presidential debate, we look at what wasn't discussed: Rep. Paul Ryan's Congressional record on health information technology.