From the August 2011 print issue
WASHINGTON – Even as health IT providers and vendors are immersed in meaningful use, the federal government has its eye on ways to export the concept overseas.
The plan is part of the White House’s National Export Initiative, which aimsto quadruple U.S. exports, including HIT, over the next decade.
At a June 17 White House roundtable, representatives of major healthcare providers, HIT vendors and trade associations shared their views with federal officials.
Aneesh Chopra, the nation’s Chief Technology Officer, said one of the objectives of the meeting was to gather information from attendees on the greatest obstacles to the export of HIT and learn how the government could help American firms enter and successfully compete in the global Health IT market.
“There are other countries that are advancing in using EHRs, but no country has anything around EHR best practices or even meaningful use yet,” said Justin Barnes, vice president of marketing, industry and government affairs for Greenway Medical, who attended the meeting. “This is a wide open opportunity to improve clinical decision support and improve outcomes as well as population health globally.”
“While the U.S. market is extremely fertile for many, there are options for us to export our solutions and services with the full support of the U.S. Trade and Commerce departments, along with the White House,” Barnes added.
“Federal officials at the roundtable cited numerous financial and strategic resources the federal government has and can help attract from other developed countries to hyper-speed any international strategies that we might want to create,” Barnes said.
Some of these solutions can be found online at export.gov.
Fred Aziz, associate director of technology and E-commerce at the International Trade Administration, said the roundtable’s follow-up items included further discussion on standards, improving the collection and dissemination of international commercial opportunities in the health IT space, and research and reporting on top markets for health IT.
Last December the United States and the European Union signed a formal agreement to promote uniform interoperability standards and HIT training in preparation for greater global trade in the HIT sector.
