Launching HITECH

Information is the lifeblood of modern medicine. Health information technology (HIT) is destined to be its circulatory system. Without that system, neither individual physicians nor health care institutions can perform at their best or deliver the highest-quality care, any more than an Olympian could excel with a failing heart. Yet the proportion of U.S. health care professionals and hospitals that have begun the transition to electronic health information systems is remarkably small.1,2 On December 30, the government took several critical steps toward a nationwide, interoperable, private, and secure electronic health information system. The Department of Health and Human Services . . .