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WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Congressman David Wu's legislation to advance the use of electronic records across health systems was approved today by the U.S. House Science and Technology Committee.
Congressman Wu's legislation is the product of many meetings, research and a U.S. House Science Committee hearing he convened in Oregon last year. The hearing revealed that while many are talking about creating a national health information infrastructure, very little attention has been given to workforce issues. Currently, there are insufficient numbers of health information technology professionals.
"The use of electronic health systems is gaining momentum, and people agree that it will improve the delivery of care in the doctor's office, save lives by reducing medical errors and make the health care industry more efficient by eliminating unnecessary or repeated procedures," said Congressman Wu. "But while everyone is talking about adopting these systems, no one is addressing the workforce concerns. We need curriculum to support an emerging specialty in health care informatics and programs to train current doctors and nurses. A workforce capable of innovating, implementing, and using electronic health systems will be critical to the successful transition. Education is key to digitizing the health care industry."
The Bureau of Labor Statistics has estimated that 136,000 Americans were employed as health information management professionals in 2000, and to meet the expected demand, there will need to be a 49 percent increase by 2010.
H.R. 1467 helps address this problem by developing curriculum for undergraduate and master’s degree programs, as well as certificate programs, in health care informatics, and developing programs to train current medical professionals, such as physicians, nurses and medical administrators.
The legislation also invests more in research to enhance the field of health care informatics to develop hardware and software solutions that focus on improving patient care.
Congressman Wu's legislation is expected to be considered in the full U.S. House in June.
Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU) already is working to train a health care information technology workforce. OHSU is partnered with the American Medical Informatics Association in the 10x10 program, a large-scale workforce training initiative which aims to train 10,000 health care professionals in informatics by the year 2010.
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