Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC)
Presidential Speeches that Mention Health Information Technology
President Participates in Conversation on Health Care, January 26, 2005
"Tomorrow, I'm going to go to Cleveland to talk about the importance and need of information technology in the health care field. If you really think about many industries in America, they've been able to modernize and become more productive by introducing IT -- information technology -- into their industries. It's a little difficult -- a little more difficult task here in health care. We've got 21st century medical practices, but 19th century paperwork system. Doctors are still writing prescriptions by hand….So there's a better way to enable our health care system to wring out inefficiencies and to protect our patients. So medical electronic records is going to be one of the great innovations in medicine. And I look forward to talking about ways to advance information technology and health care."
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President Discusses Medical Liability Reform, January 5, 2005
"To address the cost of medical care, we need to apply 21st century information technology to the health care field. We need to have our medical records put on the IT."
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President's Radio Address, December 18, 2004
"Another challenge in our economy is the rising cost of health care. More than half of all uninsured Americans are small business employees and their families. And while many business owners want to provide health care for their workers, they just can't afford the high cost. To help more Americans get care, we need to expand tax-free health savings accounts, which are already making a difference for small businesses and families. We should encourage health information technology that minimizes error and controls costs. And Congress must allow small firms to join together and buy health insurance at the same discounts big companies get."
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President Discusses Medical Liability Reform and Health Care in Downington, Pennsylvania, October 21, 2004
"Fourth, we'll reduce health care costs by applying modern information technology to our medical system. Many doctors offices practice 21st century medicine -- many hospitals practice 21st century medicine, but still have 19th century filing systems. And in hospitals, there's more risk of medical error when all the records are handwritten on paper, instead of cross-checked on a computer. That makes sense. Doctors don't write very well anyway. (Laughter.) They write about as well as I speak English. (Laughter and applause.)"
"The current system is costly and is wasteful, and sometimes horrible -- sometimes harmful. And we're on our way to fixing it. I've set a goal to make electronic medical records available for most Americans within the next decade. We're working with states and private hospitals to set standards for information storage and sharing. When the health care community fully maximizes the use of information technology, we will reduce medical costs by as much as 20 percent. We will cut medical errors and we will save lives. (Applause.)"
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President Discusses the Economy in Rochester, Minnesota, October 20, 2004
"And, fourthly, medicine, in all due respect, is like going back to the horse and buggy days, when it comes to the use of information technology. I mean, you know, there's a lot of files that are handwritten still, and you can't even read a doctor's writing most of the time. (Laughter.) So I believe in electronic medical records. I know we need to have a common language all across the medical field. They estimate that over 20 to 30 percent of the costs can be wrung out of the system with the proper use of information technology. This is an exciting new era available for medicine. You just need a President who understands how to address the root causes of costs going up. And that's how you avoid federalizing health care, and that's how you put in place common-sense policies that makes sure the decisions are always made by doctor and patient, not by officials in our nation's capital. (Applause.)"
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President's Remarks at "Focus on Health with President Bush" Event, September 16, 2004
"We need to promote health information technologies. My hope is that most Americans have a personal electronic health record within the next decade. That's a fancy way of saying that when you have a system where docs who can barely write -- well, they can write, you just can't read it -- handwrite every file, there's inefficiencies in the system. One way to help with health care costs is to modernize the health care industry. We've got a great project going on in Washington, D.C. to bring technologies into the health care field. It's going to save money."
Read entire speech President's Remarks in "Focus on Health Care" Event, September 13, 2004
"There's more to do to make health care available and affordable. We've got to modernize the health care information. I believe that within the next 10 years we can have electronic health records, with safeguards for your privacy, which will cut down on the administrative costs of health. We can save a lot of money by using technology to modernize health care."
Read entire speech President Bush Calls for Medical Liability Reform, January 26, 2004
"There's something else we can do at the federal level, and that is to promote promising health information technology. The truth of the matter is, medicine is on the leading edge of change. And some of the new drugs are fantastic about -- to help save lives. Some of the new machinery is fantastic. The information systems of the health care system are a little antiquated. I mean, you're still moving files by hand, aren't you? Kind of writing it out by hand. Well, what we need to do is to have standards and computerized records -- we can improve care and prevent errors, which will save money in the system. There's tremendous savings to be had by bringing technology into the medical field, and the federal government can help there, as well."
Read entire speech The President's Address to the Nation, January 24, 2004
"And fifth, we can control health care costs and improve care by moving American medicine into the information age. My budget for the coming year proposes doubling to $100 million the money we spend on projects that use promising health information technology. This would encourage the replacement of handwritten charts and scattered medical files with a unified system of computerized records. By taking this action, we would improve care, and help prevent dangerous medical errors, saving both lives and money."
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State of the Union Address, January 20, 2004
"Our nation's health care system, like our economy, is also in a time of change. Amazing medical technologies are improving and saving lives. This dramatic progress has brought its own challenge, in the rising costs of medical care and health insurance. Members of Congress, we must work together to help control those costs and extend the benefits of modern medicine throughout our country. (Applause.)"
Read entire address President Announces Framework to Modernize and Improve Medicare, March 4, 2003
"Patient safety also improves when doctors can have access to health records without delay. When a patient has a medical emergency far from home, the attending physician should have quick access to that person's medical records. Yet the health care industry, while progressing in many areas, has lagged in information technology."
"Right now, as you all know better than most, health care records are kept in different formats -- believe it or not, a lot of times on paper. (Laughter.) In files. (Laughter.) That can get lost. (Laughter.) In the budget for next year I propose an increase of 53 percent for funding to help hospitals use information technology to keep better records, to share that information with doctors so that we can continue to improve patient safety. (Applause.)"
"Tommy Thompson and his department are leading the way, and they're making good use of information technology. For example, they're using information technology for an on-line comparative guide to nursing homes. It's a good use of the Internet. It's a good way to speak directly to the consumers of America. Families are now able to compare nursing homes to one another. That makes sense. There's nothing like enhancing quality by holding people to account. They're able to compare on measures such as infection rates, or how well patients are progressing in getting on their feet. It's the practical way to use the information technology."
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Various Stump Speeches:
"And so what Tommy and I are working on is what they call electronic medical records. Everybody is going to have an electronic medical record that you'll be able to carry with you, that you'll be able to send to whoever you want to send. It will cost -- it will reduce cost in the health care system, and it will reduce errors in the health care system. And it makes eminent sense for the health care industry to get into the 21st century. It's stuck in the past."
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"You got me going here. (Laughter.) I talked to you about technology. This is -- health care is an industry where somebody takes a file and puts it under his or her arm -- I'm exaggerating a little bit, but I'm pretty accurate -- and goes from one office to the next; and the files are handwritten -- and doctors don't write very well -- (laughter). What I'm telling you is that unlike a lot of other industry, the technology hasn't changed how health care is delivered, and how the administrative costs of health care are -- they haven't helped reduce the costs of health care like it has in a lot of other industry."
"And so this administration started a plan to encourage the development of an electronic medical record for every citizen in the country, with privacy rights. That will help streamline and reduce costs in medicine. They estimate 30 percent cost reduction in medicine when we get technology introduced into the health care industry."
Read entire speech "We can continue to promote health savings accounts, which allow individuals and small businesses to put money aside for workers and/or yourself on a tax-free basis, which will help control costs. We can spread new technologies, electronic records for patients, to help wring out the inefficiencies which now exist in the medical system."
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Last revised: January 28, 2005
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Third Nationwide Health Information Network Forum: Prototypes and Business Models, January 25-26, 2007.
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Emergency Responder Electronic Health Record Detailed Use Case
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Click here to find out more about the American Health Information Community workgroup meetings.
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ONC and AHIMA release two anti-fraud project reports
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Health IT (HIT) Adoption Initiative Announced
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Health IT Contracts Awarded Stemming from RFPs
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