Obama adds health IT to economic stimulus package

Government Health IT, December 9, 2008

President-elect Barack Obama has announced health information technology will be included in an economic recovery plan that is now being worked out with members of Congress. In a radio address, Obama said modernizing U.S. hospitals would be part of a major effort to finance an upgrade of the broadband infrastructure of the United States, which he said has fallen to 15th in the world in its rate of adoption. "We must ensure that our hospitals are connected to each other through the internet," Obama said, an effort he said that "won't just save jobs, it will save lives."