Quoted: "Twelve months ago, the most important things on American voters' minds were the war and health care. Two days ago, the most important thing on American voters' minds is the economy. Health care and the war have taken a backseat."

With an aging population, behavior-related chronic conditions, and expensive innovations, companies must help people address their specific personal health concerns with thorough, transparent and specific information... Effective health engagement can build trust, and conversely, trust is the key to deeper engagement.

Quoted: Starting next month, many enrollees in the insurer's plans will be able to move information from their Aetna "personal health record" -- an online repository of data that includes claims, diagnoses, test results and prescriptions -- to HealthVault.

Quoted: MyPACS.net creator Rex Jakobovits said success in health 2.0 is all about building critical mass. “One that’s there, it’s self-perpetuating.”

Quoted: Revolution Health has inked a deal to merge with one of the largest online health companies in the world, with a network of more than 20 sites. The deal, estimated to be worth $300 million, joins together Revolution and Brooklyn, N.Y.-based Waterfront Media -- the second- and third-largest purveyors on online health information -- in a bid to compete with the acknowledged front-runner, WebMD.

Quoted: "Information technology greatly increases the transparency of medical informatics and healthcare systems so that people can understand what is involved in their care. This helps them to make better decisions regarding costs and take ownership of their own healthcare. What that means in terms of IT is that we need systems that let people access more information and store it securely so that people can have confidence that their proprietary data will stay private."

Not all people have the same background and, thus, we need to provide effective educational opportunities.

In order for personalized medicine to be successful, multiple healthcare providers at different locations will need to access information in a patient's records. This is an enormous challenge because there is no universal computer network for healthcare in the country.

Quoted: Advance for Health Information Executives is a monthly trade magazine with content relevant to health care IS and IT executives, including job listings, industry news, developments and trends in health care.

Chilmark Research Inc., a consumer health care I.T. research firm, has released a report that analyzes how personal health records technology from Google Inc. and Microsoft Corp. already have changed the market for this technology.

Quoted: "PHR vendors are now directly experiencing the impact of this visibility with a significant increase in the number of requests for proposals from employers, providers and health plans. But with this increase in demand, consumer expectations will also rise, putting significant pressure on smaller, less capable PHR vendors and thus putting them at risk."

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

Quoted: Privacy concerns could present a significant psychological barrier to individuals signing up for personal health records...According to Markle, the national survey of a representative sample of adults 19 years of age and older was conducted online, and included both those who use the Internet and those who do not.