It was a watershed moment for healthcare IT. The announcements on July 21 were the perfect storm – everything was lined up for maximum impact. It was the biggest day on the news wires since the launch of this newspaper last year and, perhaps, in industry history.

The Secretarial Summit on Health Information Technology, formerly known as the National Healthcare Information Infrastructure (NHII) conference, served as the backdrop to "The Brailer Plan" – the much-anticipated blueprint from new Department of Health and Human Services' healthcare IT czar, David Brailer, MD.

The report, "The Decade of Health Information Technology – Delivering Consumer-centric and Information-Rich Healthcare," outlined a strategy to establish a national healthcare information infrastructure within 10 years. Immediately, some responded that this was too long to wait.

The plan's four main goals (EHR adoption, patient data networking, increased consumer access to health information, and improved quality of care) are hardly controversial. But the big audience and big-time press coverage was new.

HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson took the stage and introduced the plan, and Bush-appointee Brailer, with election-year flourish. "America needs to move much faster to adopt information technology in our healthcare system," he told the crowd of more than 2,000 at the Washington Convention Center. "We can't wait any longer."

Thompson also outlined initiatives for private sector certification of healthcare IT products, the formation of a healthcare IT Leadership Panel, and a review of the feasibility of creating a private sector consortium to develop the backbone of a national healthcare IT network.

A flurry of other presentations and news releases started to flesh out a few of the details. CMS Administrator Mark McClellan announced Medicare's plans to publish standards for e-prescribing by year's end and, upon the adoption of standards, to require that all Medicare PBMs offer e-prescribing. CMS is also developing a portal for Medicare beneficiaries to access their personal health information and will launch a pilot consumer access program in Indiana.

HIMSS, AHIMA, and AHA's National Alliance for Health Information Technology (NAHIT), announced that they had joined forces to launch a certification program for ambulatory EHRs by next year. Such certification would theoretically also serve as a basis for carrot-and-stick EMR-adoption incentive programs from public and/or private payers, including Medicare.Vendors, associations, and politicians fell over themselves to endorse the initiatives or to take credit.

The AMA announced it is "dedicated to helping fulfill the promise of an affordable standards-based electronic health record," while AMA Chair J. James Rohack, MD, felt a need to remind us that physicians already "use the latest technology to diagnose and treat patients."

In Washington, everyone joined the bandwagon. Bureaucrats, lawmakers, analysts and vendors spoke in short wham-bam speeches that preached to the choir. In an age of controversy, healthcare IT had become, truly, as American as motherhood and apple pie.Talk may be cheap, but this much talk, from so many influential people, has to be worth something. Just after 8 a.m. the investment analysts had already signaled the bulls with their releases. One read, "…the report will create greater awareness of the issue, resulting in near-term multiple expansion."

Recognizing the historic opportunity, and not wanting to leave the Republicans alone at the forefront of an issue that's become a rallying point for so many, Congressman Patrick J. Kennedy (D-RI) used the day to officially introduce his "Josie King Act," which would create a series of interconnected regional health information networks to securely share health information. Newt Gingrich's Center for Health Transformation promptly issued a release applauding Kennedy's "bold proposal."

Buried in all the reports were the same cautions. July 21 may have been the torch ceremony, but the medalists will be determined by their performance down the road.That's why, although July 21 may have been a big day for news in the healthcare IT industry, the much more important news is still out there. The devil is in the details, and you can count on this newspaper to continue to be an informative, authoritative guide, as we move from argument to action, in the months and years to come.