Obama tech chief bullish on using tech to promote open government in health care

iHealthBeat
October 13, 2009
By Kate Ackerman

SAN FRANCISCO – After giving the keynote speech at last week’s Health 2.0 conference in San Francisco, U.S. Chief Technology Officer Aneesh Chopra sat down with iHealthBeat to discuss how health 2.0 aligns with the Obama administration’s larger health reform goals, the federal stimulus package, the administration’s open government initiative and shareable intellectual property. An excerpt from the transcript of the interview follows. For the full transcript: Federal CTO

iHealthBeat: How does the Obama administration’s open government initiative align with its health IT goals? Will you push for more collaboration in health IT?

Chopra: Oh, absolutely. It’s hand in glove. The open government initiative has three basic pillars.

One is transparency. To the extent that there’s information that we have that if made more accessible could enable health outcomes improvement, we’re all over it.

Two, it involves participatory democracy to the extent that we are making rules and regulations, not just on health IT payments, but on general conditions. If FDA were to regulate medical devices that impact some of the tools that are enabled through health 2.0, we want to be open and transparent and engage the American people so their voice is heard in Washington without the need to hire a lobbyist or have an otherwise official presence in D.C. So, on participatory democracy, we see great potential.

And, third, we are very bullish on the pillar of collaboration. That is to say, we understand for us to deliver the kind of game-changing improvements in the nation’s health care system, there may be a role for the federal government, but it will largely be born out of private and not-for-profit sectors. So collaboration is critical. And, again, we hope to demonstrate that not just in words but in deeds in the coming weeks and months.

Copyright 2009 California HealthCare Foundation