Newt Gingrich's Remarks

Today, I listened to Mr. Gingrich present his vision of a "21st Century Intelligent Health System" to the Delaware Valley Chapter of HIMSS. Prior to the webinar, my bias was that he was playing the health care card to enhance his national image and position himself to run again for higher office. Time will tell. On the other hand, he did impress me with his grasp of the issues, and his ability to get his message across. He is clearly a force to be reckoned with, and I believe he'll help break the current logjam in the health IT debate. Many of the things he said resonated with me. Here are some examples.
a. Health is essentially a moral issue.
b. Focus first on saving lives, and cost savings will follow.
c. A simple argument for EHR's--"paper kills."
d. The inevitability of a digital health system--the issue is when, not if.
e. An EHR makes sense from a public safety standpoint, especially when disaster strikes.
f. See past the system noise and political theater about HIT. There is bipartisan interest in moving forward in this arena.
Check out the Center for Health Transformation for additional information on Mr Gingrich's vision and initiatives.