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DC HarrisHealthReform
(U.S. Newswire Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) BC-DC-HarrisHealthReform
To: NATIONAL EDITORS
Contact: Sleighton Meyer of Harris Government Communications Systems,
+1-321-727-6514, sleighton.meyer@harris.com, Jim Burke of Harris Corporation,
+1-321-727-9131, jim.burke@harris.com, or Marc Raimondi of Harris Corporation
- Washington, D.C., +1-202-729-3732, marc.raimondi@harris.com
WASHINGTON, July 16 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- The U.S. needs to go beyond
simply digitizing health records and create integrated, interoperable
enterprises if it hopes to truly transform the nation's healthcare system,
Harris Corporation's Jim Traficant told a Capitol Hill steering committee
yesterday.
Traficant, vice president of Healthcare Solutions for Harris Corporation
(NYSE: HRS), told members of the Institute for e-Health Policy's Steering
Committee on Telehealth and Healthcare Informatics that "Healthcare reform
must go beyond digitizing a broken system to enabling an integrated,
interoperable one.
"Healthcare transformation will come from a connected, integrated,
interoperable system where health information is delivered on demand to
clinical and benefits experts with security and privacy, and with patients in
control of how their information is shared. That's the transformation the
President and nation are looking for. That's the transformation our parents
and our children are counting on us to deliver."
Truly integrated and interoperable healthcare enterprises will ultimately
help improve patient care and control rising costs, he told the committee.
These enterprises "will lead to transparency in pricing and performance, and
enable us to attack fraud and waste - all with the ultimate result of reduced
costs, improved outcomes, and predictable quality."
Traficant noted that some of the challenges facing healthcare today
already have been solved in other industries with large networks, such as the
intelligence community and government agencies. He suggested that the lessons
learned - if not some of the solutions themselves - from relevant government
experience can be applied to what he referred to as a "once-in-a-lifetime
opportunity to transform our healthcare system. There's no need to start from
scratch."
He cited the successful transformation of the Federal Aviation
Administration (FAA) telecommunications infrastructure, which has been
transitioned from a fragmented system into a comprehensive, extremely reliable
and cost-effective network connecting operations and mission-support
activities at 4,000 FAA facilities nationwide.
He also highlighted the tremendous progress that has been made to date
with the Nationwide Health Information Network (NHIN), which is expected to
provide a secure, nationwide, interoperable health information infrastructure
that will connect providers, consumers, and others involved in supporting
health and healthcare. The NHIN CONNECT Gateway allows federal agencies and
private sector healthcare providers to securely exchange electronic patient
information. Those participating in the network can leverage CONNECT to
achieve critical mission objectives for standards-based, interoperable health
information exchange. It is already in use by the Social Security
Administration, where it has significantly reduced the time required to
process disability claims, and could one day serve as a single portal from
which Americans securely access their own clinical and claims data from any
federal source.
Harris - with partners Agilex Technologies, Inc., Sun Microsystems, Inc.,
and Scenpro, Inc. -- developed the software for the CONNECT Gateway, which was
released by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in April for
general availability as Open Source.
Traficant concluded his presentation before the steering committee by
urging attendees to "make it happen. Transformation of the healthcare system
is within our reach. The future of our nation depends on it. We have been
given an incredible opportunity. We can't squander it."
An archived webcast of the briefing is available on the Institute's web
site: http://www.e-healthpolicy.org.
Harris Healthcare Solutions provides enterprise intelligence solutions and
services for commercial and government customers, including systems
integration, intelligent infrastructure, advanced visualization and display,
enterprise digital content management, and IT services solutions. Harris
products, systems, and services improve health outcomes by assuring that
critical medical information is delivered with security and privacy to the
right person, on the right device, at the point of care.
About Harris Corporation
Harris is an international communications and information technology
company serving government and commercial markets in more than 150 countries.
Headquartered in Melbourne, Florida, the company has approximately $5 billion
of annual revenue and 15,000 employees -- including nearly 7,000 engineers and
scientists. Harris is dedicated to developing best-in-class assured
communications((R)) products, systems, and services. Additional information
about Harris Corporation is available at http://www.harris.com.
SOURCE Harris Corporation
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(c) 2009 U.S. Newswire Corp.
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