CHICAGO – The Obama adminstration's chief for healthcare IT technology David Blumenthal, MD, was on the healthcare IT message from dawn to dusk Thursday - a part of the White House campaign to save its troubled healthcare reform plans.

The day started with an open letter from Blumenthal about the benefits of electronic health records and ended with another open letter from him on the $1.2 billion HITECH grants that had been announced earlier in the day.

Blumenthal joined Vice President Joseph Biden and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius at Mt. Sinai Hospital on Chicago's West Side for a roundtable discussion with nurses, doctors and administrators.

At the forum, the trio announced $1.2 billion in HITECH grants would be released - $598 million to create 70 health information technology extension centers across the country to help physicians and hospitals implement electronic health records and $564 million to help states support the development of health information exchanges.

"This is just the first wave of resources invested in health technology aimed at really transforming our paper-driven system to an electronic system over the next several years, providing help and support for hospitals and doctors as they make this conversion," Sebelius said.

"It's no coincidence that these two grant programs are leading the way," Blumenthal said in this open letter at the end of the day.  "Key to the successful adoption and meaningful use of EHRs is the assurance that providers have the help and guidance they need to select, implement and maintain a certified EHR system. In addition, we need the various and often disparate local, statewide and regional systems to work together, regardless of location and differing state and federal standards or policies, to enhance patient care."

After the roundtable at Mt. Sinai, Sebelius introduced Blumenthal on a teleconference with the media. Blumenthal spoke briefly and responded to questions about concerns over data security and the definition of meaningful use of healthcare IT, a measure that will determine which providers are eligible to receive extra payments from Medicare and Medicaid.

He said the definition would be completed by the end of the year. On the security issue, he said the Health Information Technology Policy Committee would be asked to take up the topic of security soon.

"We understand that is critical," he said. "The information that is passed within the healthcare system has to be secure or the public won't have confidence in those electronic health records."

The full text of Blumenthal's letter sent at the end of the day Thursday appears on the following page.

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