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Archived News
2008
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President Bush
Announces Information Technology Initiatives for
Health Care In a Thursday speech in Cleveland, Ohio, President George W. Bush announced new initiatives to bring health care more in line with technology trends in other American industries. In his speech, the President noted the need for medical records to be readily accessible to not just doctors and medical personnel, but to individuals as well. He also pointed out how technology could serve to make healthcare more cost-effective and efficient. The Bush Administration’s 2006 budget supports the use of health information technology by allowing for widespread adoption of information technology in the health care industry. Across the country many medical professionals use outdated, paper-based systems. The President’s 10-year goal calls for the nation’s medial records to be stored electronically, with secure access available to health care providers when authorized by the patient. Dorine Bennett, Director of the Health Information Management (HIM) programs at Dakota State University reacted enthusiastically to the President’s speech, pointing out that DSU has been offering degrees in HIM since 1975. What started as a paper-based program has grown into a degree that combines medicine, management, finance, law, and information technology. Graduates of the HIM programs find jobs as managers of hospital medical information departments or security specialists, charged with maintaining the privacy of patient health information. Bennett says President Bush’s announcement will make graduates from program such as DSU’s even more in demand. “As the healthcare industry makes a transition from paper to electronic health records, there is certainly a need for health information managers with skills in increasingly complex and diverse areas. Dakota State University is able to support this initiative with graduates ready to play a key role in the advancement of the electronic health records.” To underline her point, Bennett also said that graduates who earned bachelor’s degrees in Health Information Administration at DSU had 100% placement success in 2004. DSU President Dr. Doug Knowlton agreed with Bennett’s assessment of the impact the Bush Administration’s initiatives will have on the HIM program at Dakota State. “With DSU’s information technology mission and specifically with the only nationally accredited heath information program in the state, we are clearly in a unique position to support the President’s initiative in health information management. We will continue to support this industry and look for new ways to manage this vital piece of information” More information on the President’s information technology health care initiatives can be found at http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/
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