Quoted: They're not your typical greeting cards...The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta has developed more than 80 electronic greetings called Health-e-Cards to spread health information. Some are animated, others have music, and one urging screening for colorectal cancer features actor Jimmy Smits.

CDC officials said they did not have any estimate of what each card cost to produce. It's minimal, said Ann Aikin, CDC health communications specialist, noting the cards are built in-house...

http://www2a.cdc.gov/ecards

Quoted: Former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Newt Gingrich and others see health information technology (IT) as key to fixing a dysfunctional health-care system. But moving health care into the digital age will be far from easy.

Quoted: Both houses of Congress are considering appropriations bills that would hold spending by the Office of the National Coordinator [ONC] near this year's level.

Quoted: Reps. John Dingell (D-Mich.) and Joe Barton (R-Texas) have introduced health care information technology legislation in the U.S. House a month after issuing a draft bill for public comment.

The legislation would amend the privacy rule to require application of penalties to business associates in the same manner as applied to covered entities

Microsoft unveiled Thursday the second version of its Connected HHS Framework, which it hopes will connect disparate systems from programs within the agencies of the Department of Health and Human Services.

Quoted: The company also announced the formation of a 15-member alliance of industry partners that will adopt the framework and work with Microsoft and HHS, said Kevin Dolan, Microsoft’s alliance director for U.S. public sector health and human services. “It’s common that there are multiple programs within the agencies that focus on health and human services,” Dolan said. “The data in those programs are disconnected and that doesn’t provide caseworkers with a full vision. It also doesn’t lead to coordinated care.”

For instance, caseworkers usually have access to client data only within their siloed systems, explained Dolan. The framework would ideally grant them access to information from other programs including child welfare, Medicaid, and even programs beyond HHS. The framework can be looked at primarily as a service-oriented architecture that follows industry and federal enterprise standards, said Dolan. The purpose, he added, is to identify common business and technology functions required across these federal programs, and then provide them in a way that allows coordinated case management.

Quoted: The former National Coordinator for Health IT touted health ITs ability to transform health care at a California conference.

Quoted: United Health Group and PacifiCare announce $6.2 million grants

A shakeup consolidates like product lines for clinical health IT and health business systems in separate program offices and managers are named. The new Defense Health Information Management System program office will consolidate programs providing electronic health records and other clinical data, while the new Defense Health Systems Program Office will manage business systems and analytical tools

...members of four work groups appointed by contractors hired by HHS to create that successor organization were to report their final recommendations on that AHIC reorganization. The groups focused on business sustainability, governance, membership and transition.

Quoted: "The organization can't be sustained by dues alone," he said. "It must have public and private partners." - Mark McClellan, head of the healthcare policy wing at Brookings.