Health IT Conference

Mark Warner wants Virginia to become a leader in adopting health information technology.

On May 18, Senator Warner hosted a conference at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, to bring together all the stakeholders -- hospital and health care executives from across the state, as well as federal and state officials -- to learn how Virginia can access these new federal funds and position the commonwealth as a national leader on health IT.

We will soon post video from the entire conference.

Here are copies of the PowerPoint presentations from the conference:

Warner HIT Conference: Tony Trenkle's Presentation

Warner HIT Conference: Sec. Marilyn Tavenner's Presentation

Warner HIT Conference: Dr. Robert Wah's Presentation

In a preview of the conference in Sunday's Roanoke Times, Senator Warner described some of the challenges and opportunities in implementing health IT:

To help ready Virginia for coming funding, U.S. Sen. Mark Warner has arranged for a health IT summit Monday in Richmond. The national coordinator for health information technology, recently appointed by Obama, will be at the summit.

"This is going to be one of the areas that is going to drive health care reform," Warner said. ...

Warner said establishing electronic medical records in hospitals, nursing homes and physicians' offices throughout the state will improve care and reduce costs.

"There is no reason why health care can't get some of the efficiencies that every other field has," he said, pointing to manufacturing and telecommunications as examples.

While the guidelines for exactly how the money will be distributed are still being worked out, Warner said he believes that cooperation between different health care providers will be the key to attracting government dollars. That includes requirements that different hospital systems and physicians' offices be able to share information.

Warner, who has a background in telecommunications, said the system should be similar to the way cellphone companies operate: There are different providers, but a call from a Verizon phone can be received by a Sprint phone. Financial incentives will be needed to push a working system into operation, he said.