House Science and Tech Committee Advances Health IT Bill, Two Others

Wednesday, the House Committee on Science and Technology advanced three bills for consideration by the House. Coordinating information technology (IT) in healthcare (H.R. 2406), improving miner tracking and communication systems (H.R. 3877), and establishing a national ocean exploration program (H.R. 1834) were the focus of the separate bills passed by the full committee.

H.R. 2406, to authorize the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to increase its efforts in support of the integration of the healthcare information enterprise in the U.S., was introduced by Chairman Bart Gordon.

"There is a general consensus that the result of fully utilized information technology would be lower cost and improved patient care. Regardless of its acknowledged benefits, the use of IT by the healthcare community remains low and lags far behind other segments of our economy such as financial services, banking and manufacturing," said Gordon. "This bill aims to remedy that problem."

H.R. 2406 is intended to improve technology in the healthcare system by creating a national, interoperable health IT system to maintain patient healthcare records. The IT system could potentially benefit thousands of people a year who suffer due to medical errors, improper diagnoses, or being prescribed incorrect medications due to lack of a comprehensive family medical history or poorly maintained records.

"In a world of electronic information these issues can only be resolved through the development of technical standards. These standards currently do not exist in any comprehensive form," added Gordon. "To me, NIST is the obvious federal agency to promote the development of these standards. NIST already has a proven track record in this type of work."

An amendment was added which clarified that healthcare IT efforts to be undertaken by NIST are intended to complement existing federal health IT efforts that were established by Executive Order 13335 (which created the office of the National Health Information Technology Coordinator); as well as other perfecting changes.

An amendment offered by Rep. Baron Hill which requires NIST, in consultation with NSF, establish a task force of federal agency and industry group representatives to create a strategy for developing common terminologies and classifications for use in health IT systems was also adopted.

In response to the recent mine disaster in Utah, Rep. Jim Matheson introduced H.R. 3877. This legislation would require the Director of the NIST to establish an initiative to promote the research, development, and demonstrations of mine tracking and communications system that would allow underground miners to communicate with co-workers above the ground. In addition, it would establish a set of standards to strengthen communication systems to provide U.S. miners with a safer work environment.

"The mine collapse at Crandall Canyon Mine in Utah destroyed any means of tracking or communicating with the trapped miners. It was an excruciating ordeal for the families, the mine owner and the mine rescuers. Deep underground mines pose unique technological challenges for existing tracking and communications systems. We need to jump start the research, development and demonstration of new technology that will give mine workers and the industry a safer working environment," said Matheson.

An amendment expanded the purpose of the research program created in the bill to include the establishment of best practices and the adaptation of existing technology for mine communications. It also added research on characterizing the radio propagation environment, performance metrics, and validation tests as focus areas for the program and broadened the requirement for NIST to develop any needed measurement services for mine communications technology.

A third bill, H.R. 1834 authored by Rep. Jim Saxton, also cleared the committee.