Health IT Strategic Framework
Attachment 2
I. Introduction
On April 27, President Bush issued the Executive Order Incentives for the Use of Health Information Technology and Establishing the Position of the National Health Information Technology Coordinator. The purpose of the Order was for "the development of an interoperable health information technology infrastructure to improve the quality and efficiency of healthcare." The Executive Order is consistent with the goal expressed by President Bush to ensure that the medical records of a majority of Americans are available in electronic format within 10 years.
As part of this Order in Section 4(b), the President directed the Secretaries of the Departments of Veterans Affairs (VA) and Defense (DoD) to report on the following:
The approaches the Departments could take to work more actively with the private sector to make their health information systems available as an affordable option for providers in rural and medically underserved communities.
The Order requires the Departments to document their approach in reports within 90 days, by July 27, 2004, and to submit the reports to the President through the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS). On behalf of the Secretary, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONCHIT) is responsible for coordination of such reports. Likewise, through ONCHIT, HHS is preparing a larger Strategic Plan that will address the transformation of health care delivery through information technology.
This report meets the VA requirement to submit an approach through ONCHIT to make health information technologies available to rural and medically underserved communities. This report also provides VA's contribution to the larger HHS Strategic Plan that will provide recommendations to transforming health care delivery using information technology.
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