WASHINGTON – It’s fairly clear that President Barack Obama should feel like a champion. With nearly 2 million jubilant people in attendance at his inauguration and now a Gallup poll approval rating of 83 percent, he shouldn’t doubt his popularity.

Yet, who would have guessed he would come straight out of the gate as a healthcare IT champion? This is very good news for the industry, and undoubtedly already earning him kudos from healthcare IT stakeholders everywhere.

Obama started early with a campaign promise of 50 billion over five years for healthcare IT. Since his election, he has weekly promoted healthcare IT in his radio addresses and press conferences. During the transition phase, he has pushed for electronic health records for every American by 2014 and the use of healthcare IT as part of an economic recovery plan. Congress has followed suit with a $20 billion proposal in the works for healthcare IT advancement, and codification plus $2 billion slated for federal healthcare IT leadership.

In all fairness to former President Bush, Obama’s healthcare IT banner has unfurled on its own, but is also part of the passing of a baton. During his administration, Bush pushed for electronic medical records by 2014 and founded the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, responsible for policy advances, standards harmonization and certification. Obama plans to take up where those advances left off, promising more money to accomplish that than in the past.

There’s a lot that can be said for the backing of a president. According to the HIMSS Analytics Database, 85 percent of hospitals in the contracting phase of an IT acquisition have signed with a Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology-certified vendor since November 2007.

Amid all the optimism, caution comes from an unexpected place. In a Jan. 12 blog, Peter Neupert, corporate vice president of Microsoft’s Health Solutions Group, told lawmakers to think twice before finalizing their healthcare IT shopping list.

“If the country is going to invest $50 billion in incremental health IT we all want it to be invested wisely,” he said. “The question is: What will generate the most benefit and how can we accomplish it?”
That’s something to think about in light of Microsoft’s recent announcement to lay off 5,000 workers.