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Health
Tech Group Donates Electronic Prescription Tool
by Aliya Sternstein
A coalition of technology companies and healthcare groups announced Tuesday that they are donating a free, Internet-based e-prescription tool to all U.S. physicians in the hopes of jumpstarting the use of healthcare information technology.
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga, repeated his trademark slogan "paper kills" at a news conference where the initiative was unveiled. "You can use every complex, sophisticated analysis you want;" the fact is that "a paper prescription is dangerous," he said.
Prescription medication errors contribute to the deaths of more than 7,000 Americans each year, according to statistics from the National Institute of Medicine. Illegible handwriting and the inability to check for drug interactions are part of the problem. Hurricane Katrina in 2005 also demonstrated that paper prescriptions are unreliable.
Currently, less than 5 percent of the nation's 600,000 practicing physicians can e-prescribe, according to a fact sheet released by the coalition.
The new offering, called eRx Now, is Internet-based software created by the healthcare technology vendor Allscripts. The product is powered by the same system that has been used by thousands of physicians already. Starting Tuesday, any physician can sign up at www.nationalerx.com for free.
The initiative's goal is to provide "safe, simple, secure and free e-prescribing to every physician in America," said Nancy Dickey, president of the Health Science Center at Texas A&M University System and a former president of the American Medical Association.
Part of the holdup with widespread e-prescriptions has been opposition from doctors, who are concerned about the cost and the time to learn and install the technology.
Gingrich, the founder of the Center for Health Transformation, said the notion that physicians cannot switch to e-prescriptions is an excuse. "They'll tell you that while looking at their BlackBerries," he said. "Doctors are overwhelmingly connected to the Web for their personal business."
Doctors can train themselves how to use eRx Now online in about 20 minutes, said organizers of the coalition, the National ePrescribing Patient Safety Initiative. The initiative is sponsored by Allscripts in partnership with Dell. Other financial supporters include Cisco Systems, Google and Microsoft. Physicians can find health-related information for themselves or their patients with a custom search engine developed by Google.
Glen Tullman, chairman and CEO of Allscripts and co-chair of the coalition, called this the "first step to get patients on the electronic healthcare superhighway."
In addition to national insurers like Aetna and Wellpoint, regional healthcare organizations in places like New Orleans and San Francisco are supporting the effort. "Healthcare is local and physicians like to learn from physicians," Tullman said.
The motivation for the tech industry to participate was partly patient safety and partly the bottom line. Allscripts believes the free program will encourage physicians to buy electronic health records, especially ones manufactured by Allscripts.
"We think this is a great investment in the future," Tullman said. The coalition expects to spend more than $100 million.
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Television
Official Is Noncommittal About TV Converter Subsidy
by David Hatch
The government official tasked with overseeing a $1.5 billion federal initiative designed to ease the nation's transition to digital television was noncommittal Tuesday about whether he will adopt changes demanded by Democrats.
"My responsibility is to execute the program according to the statute," John Kneuer, head of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, said in response to a question about whether alterations are needed to further protect consumers.
The effort would give citizens vouchers to defray the costs of purchasing digital-to-analog converter boxes that will be required to prevent analog sets from going dark Feb. 17, 2009, when TV stations switch to digital. Under the plan, households could apply for up to two coupons worth $40 each toward purchases of the units, to be priced at roughly $50.
The general framework is defined by law and cannot be modified, explained Kneuer, a Republican tapped by the White House last year to run NTIA. But the agency can tweak other aspects, including the many operational details addressed by Democrats in a Nov. 15 letter to him, he said during a briefing in his Washington office.
NTIA soon will complete a rulemaking on how the agency would implement the program, but Kneuer declined to say whether it would incorporate the opposing party's requests. He also sidestepped questions on whether additional funding is needed to ensure that more consumers receive subsidies.
The converter boxes would enable viewers to watch digital signals in an analog format on their existing analog sets. The program's goal is to avoid disenfranchising citizens who rely on free television and do not plan to purchase digital sets or cannot afford them.
But Michigan Democrat John Dingell, the new chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, and Massachusetts Democrat Edward Markey, now head of that panel's Telecommunications and the Internet Subcommittee, consider the GOP-crafted scheme to be inadequate and worry that it would leave many viewers without access to digital stations.
"We continue to believe this plan is highly flawed and disadvantages the poor, the elderly, minority groups and those with multiple analog television sets in their homes," they and other colleagues warned in the Nov. 15 missive.
They also complained that participation is limited to households relying solely on over-the-air television. The restriction shuts out "millions" of Americans who receive digital signals via pay television or with digital sets but have additional analog TVs in their homes that will go dark without the boxes, they said.
Kneuer emphasized that NTIA will monitor the subsidies to evaluate how many consumers are requesting them and whether modifications need to be made. "One of the things that we are certainly focused on is having a program that reaches out to those in the most need," he said.
The agency, a division of the Commerce Department, advises the White House on communications policy and oversees the country's spectrum.
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Civil Liberties
Accessing Of Bank Records Under Security Law Decried
by Andrew Noyes
Civil libertarians want Congress to investigate the Pentagon's use of an anti-terrorism law to collect financial records of American citizens and those suspected of terrorism or espionage in the United States.
The New York Times reported Sunday that the Defense Department and CIA have been utilizing a special subpoena power built into the recently reauthorized USA PATRIOT Act to scour bank and credit-card records.
The provision is best known for allowing the FBI to search library and Internet service files without warrants and has been successfully challenged in court by the American Civil Liberties Union. The law bars recipients of "national security letters" from disclosing the requests.
Caroline Fredrickson, who heads the ACLU's Washington office, said the latest revelation raises a host of questions, including how often agencies use the authority and under what criteria. "This country has a long tradition of rejecting the use of the CIA and the Pentagon to spy on Americans, and rightfully so," she said, adding that lawmakers should tackle the issue promptly.
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Silvestre Reyes, D-Texas, said "any expansion by the department into intelligence collection, particularly on U.S. soil," will be reviewed thoroughly by his panel.
"We want our intelligence professionals to have strong tools that will enable them to interrupt the planning process of our enemies and to stop attacks against our country," Reyes said. "But in doing so, we also want those tools to comply fully with the law and the Constitution."
A spokeswoman for Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman John (Jay) Rockefeller, D-W.Va., said her boss is requesting additional information from the Defense Department, CIA and FBI "on all aspects of the use of national security letters."
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., said that past abuses of domestic surveillance "have blemished our history" and resulted in the current law, which allows only the FBI to investigate citizens and counter-terrorism activities inside the country. "Americans deserve to know more about how our military and the CIA are conducting domestic surveillance on our own citizens," he said.
The Financial Services Roundtable, a trade group that represents Bank of America, Capital One, Citigroup and others, would not comment on the issue.
Lisa Graves, deputy director of the Center for National Security Studies, said it was "difficult to be surprised" by the news, given repeated illustrations by President Bush that he believes "he is the law unto himself, unbound by statutes or constitutional limits on his power."
She said the Pentagon's purported plan to preserve "private information about Americans who are supposedly 'cleared'" in a new database called Portico gives the agency a chance to "maintain sensitive information about innocent Americans indefinitely."
Carl Kropf, a spokesman for the director of national intelligence, said Tuesday that intelligence agencies "rarely" use the record requests. Pentagon officials said the letters were part of a more aggressive information-gathering strategy since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
Electronic Frontier Foundation Staff Attorney Kevin Bankston said the revelation, paired with telecommunications companies' compliance with domestic spying by the National Security Agency, "points to a pattern of secret, voluntary cooperation between government and businesses that Americans rely on every day."
In this case, financial institutions are culpable ethically, if not legally, he said. "Banks didn't have to give up records by law. If they respected their customers' privacy, they would not have."
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Games
State Lawmakers Continue Fight Over Videogames
by Michael Martinez
Two New York lawmakers appear undeterred by the legal failures of recent state-level efforts to curb sales of violent and sexually explicit videogames to minors and have filed similar legislation in the Empire State.
Key provisions of the bills introduced by state Reps. Keith Wright and Aurelia Greene mirror language in recent laws elsewhere that the courts overturned.
The videogame industry thus far is undefeated in its fights against state laws targeting sales of violent and sexually explicit games. Attempts to block videogame sales to minors in California, Illinois, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota and Oklahoma all were struck down on constitutional grounds during the past two years.
The District of Columbia also contemplated a bill last year that would have imposed fines up to $10,000 on retailers caught selling restricted games to underage customers. But that measure, authored by now-Mayor Adrian Fenty, eventually morphed into one to establish a program to educate consumers about the potential impact of games on children.
Wright's legislation in New York adds a new twist with a provision to require retailers to create "adults only" sections for videogames.
Under his bill, A.B. 547, stores would have to display in sections designated for shoppers 18 and older all games with content "advocating or glamorizing commission of a violent crime, suicide, sodomy, rape, incest, bestiality, sadomasochism," or content "advocating or encouraging murder, violent racism, religious violence, morbid violence or the illegal use of drugs or alcohol."
Greene's proposal, A.B. 2024, also would prohibit the sale of "mature or violent" games to minors. It was referred to the House Consumer Affairs and Protection Committee on Thursday.
Utah lawmakers also are moving on the videogame front. State Rep. Scott Wyatt has introduced a bill to modify the state's Harmful to Minors Act to include violent games.
According to GamePolitics.com, Jack Thompson, a Miami-based attorney who has filed a series of lawsuits against the videogame industry, was actively involved in writing the bill.
But the state's top cop is wary of the proposal. Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff said in a radio interview this week that he is worried about the money that "message bills" like Wyatt's will cost the state once they are inevitably tested in court.
"Why is it worth it if we're going to lose?" he said. "If you want to emphasize or put money toward something, let's do education. Teach parents what to look out for with videogames. And maybe that's a better way to handle it than to legislate this issue."
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International
U.S. Officials Tackle Global Communications Issues
by Winter Casey
A top U.S. official said Tuesday that he supports recent comments on the future of Internet governance made by the new head of the International Telecommunication Union.
David Gross, U.S. coordinator for international communications and information policy at the State Department, also called cyber security a key issue for the future during a Federal Communications Bar Association lunch.
On Friday, Mali-born Hamadoun Toure, the newly appointed head of the ITU, said he does not intend to try to take over Internet governance, and he plans to focus on narrowing the "digital divide" of technology access between rich and poor countries.
Toure said he supports the role of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers in overseeing the Internet. Some global officials have criticized ICANN's role. Gross said Toure's comments were very much in "harmony" with what the United States has said.
Gross said the United States looks toward the ITU "with regards to next-generation networks" and how standards will be developed. "We all have an interest in making sure these networks" are secure, practical and the right policies emerge to go along with them, Gross said.
However, Gross said he personally does not care for the term "digital divide," although the development sector of the ITU exists to help all countries deploy technology in a sustainable way to as many people as possible, such as through private leadership and a solid rule of law.
"In much of the developing role, the ITU has a reputation for being a source of information without parallel," he said. "We want that to continue."
John Kneuer, head of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, said the digital divide and security are areas of mutual concern that do not easily lend themselves to domestic solutions.
Toure also reportedly said Friday that his priorities include developing standards for high-speed Internet access and for access to so-called third-generation mobile telephones.
Gross said the United States supports technology neutrality that lets consumers decide what they prefer to use. The United States wants to facilitate the use of technology, but "we don't want to be a conduit for those who seek to restrict" its use, said Gross, who also noted that a goal is to make sure the country gets the spectrum it needs to foster new technologies.
Meanwhile, Gross hailed the international effort over the past five years to discuss issues of major importance to information and communication technologies.
He also noted that during ITU's recent conference, the organization experienced a number of staffing changes and also discussed the terminology of technology terms and grammar. For example, the ITU decided that the word "Internet" will continue to be capitalized, Gross said.
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Politics
YouTube Boom May Mean New Jobs On Campaigns
by Heather Greenfield
Online campaign strategists are predicting such an explosion of video-sharing next election cycle that they said campaigns should add online video experts to their staffs.
Last election cycle, many of the bigger campaigns had Internet strategists either on staff or as consultants. Those experts handled anything from maintaining online communications to contacting bloggers and monitoring video-sharing sites like YouTube. But the job of monitoring what is being said about campaigns on YouTube is growing as video production becomes cheaper, more people learn to do it, and free sites go online.
Strategists predict that bigger campaigns will be dealing with hundreds of rogue postings each month and that they need a strategy for monitoring them and deciding how to respond, as well as the staff to respond rapidly.
"The upcoming presidential election will hinge on the use of technology and the rapid response to potentially damaging imagery," Ed Morrissey wrote at his Web log Captain's Quarters.
"Monitoring is going to be a huge art of the battle," added Colin Delany of epolitics.com, which offers advice aimed at Democratic candidates. "You can't respond if you don't know about it."
David All, who recently left the office of Rep. Jack Kingston, R-Ga., to open his own online media consulting business, said campaigns can automate the monitoring to a degree. But he and Delany said having a team in place will be critical for the rapid response to YouTube attacks often posted by anonymous enemies.
When consultants say rapid, they means hours, not days, and that requires change among traditional campaign strategists who until now could better control campaign messages.
The wake-up call that created buzz among bloggers last week was a 13-year-old video of Mitt Romney answering a debate question with moderate stance, instead of a conservative one, on abortion. Romney drew praise from bloggers for answering the video within hours, and his reaction is now a model for consultants.
In a world where video spreads within minutes, Delany said it is better to respond with something almost as quickly and to take more production time for a video or audio download later. He said a campaign staff can immediately post a comment on video-sharing sites to explain the other side of the story or even just link to the candidate's official Web site.
"Your opponent's attack creates an opportunity for you to educate," Delany said.
All said it helps to shoot general video before an attack during this slower time in the campaign season, including video of the candidate interacting with constituents and speaking on issues. He said by cataloguing the video, it could be easy to put together a response video later.
Another key component, All said, will be finding a team of online supporters to help collect, produce and spread the video that the campaign wants others to see, and to help bury unfavorable postings on content rating sites like Digg.com.
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Editor's Note: On The Download is Hotline's weekly dispatch on politics, multimedia and the Internet.
On The Download
What To Expect Online From The 110th Congress
by Shira Toeplitz
Congressional Web sites are not typically known for innovation or even making it easy for constituents to find telephone numbers. The official sites are consistently behind the curve in current technology.
The 2006 campaign cycle, however, was notable for its Internet innovation, especially the use of online video, social-networking tools and outreach to Web logs. That may mean that the 110th Congress, which has an especially large freshmen class of 64, will offer more online.
Freshmen have a "higher degree of awareness than ever before of Internet communications because of course they came off the campaign trail," said Stuart Shapiro, president of the Internet consulting firm Dem Net. "And those that won ... they were the most sophisticated of the crop."
Stuart's firm, under the umbrella of parent company iConstituent, creates sites for about 25 members, including Reps. Barbara Lee, D-Calif., and Tom Allen, D-Maine.
"Everybody wants real-time resources," said Christopher Harvin, the spokesman for Rep. Doug Lamborn, R-Colo. "The congressman is going to put an emphasis on the Web site."
Lamborn was the first House freshman to no longer use the Web template supplied by the House Administration Committee after working with a private vendor to create his official site. New members are given a placeholder Web site by either the Senate Sergeant at Arms or House Administration Committee. When an office is ready to move forward, it contracts with a private vendor to design a site.
The best congressional sites receive "Gold Mouse" awards sponsored by the Congressional Management Foundation. The nonprofit group has studied 615 official sites (including those of members, committees and leadership offices) and picked the 85 best. The full report is due the second half of February, but the project manager of this year's report had some words about the 109th Congress.
"We saw the really good and the really bad," said Tim Hysom, the foundation's assistant director for communications and technology. "[We were] generally disappointed at the state of congressional Web sites."
Hysom said a handful of Web sites had not been changed since the last Gold Mouse awards -- in 2003. Often times, he said sites will go untouched for months.
There are a few good sites. For example, members like Reps. Steve Israel, D-N.Y., and Jack Kingston, R-Ga. But more often than not, congressional blogs are not updated regularly. Rep. John Carter, R-Texas, has posted three times since June 2006.
"Some senior House Web sites look like a fourth-grader put it together," one senior House aide said. "The bottom line is, we know there is a whole class of new people out there who are used to using the most cutting-edge technology, and we want to enable to them to use what they are comfortable with."
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Today's Feature:
People Column
If the Homeland Security Department can hire the security expert from the Information Technology Association of America as its cyber-security czar, it's only fair that ITAA tap a department security person to fill the vacancy.
Every Tuesday, read the People Column by Heather Greenfield
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E-briefs
Crime: A private investigator involved in Hewlett-Packard's high-profile spying scandal pleaded guilty Friday to identity theft and conspiracy. Bryan Wagner, 29, admitted to illegally obtaining the Social Security numbers and telephone records of two reporters and two former HP board members and their family members as part of the company's investigation of media leaks. Wagner was the first defendant to be convicted in the HP investigation, the Justice Department said. Terms of his plea deal were not made public. A San Jose, Calif., federal judge plans to hear arguments Tuesday on whether to seal the plea agreement. The conspiracy charge carries a maximum five-year prison term, a fine of $250,000 and three years of supervised release, officials said. Wagner could face a minimum of two years in prison and a similar monetary fine for the ID theft. His sentencing hearing is scheduled for June 20.
Health: Researchers working for the Health and Human Services Department have released draft requirements for electronic health records designed to detect potential healthcare fraud and claims errors. Proposals include basic requirements such as a standardized audit logs and patient access, plus more forward-looking recommendations, such as the ability to support biometrics for e-authentication by 2010. One requirement would be the capacity to view the method of entry for each piece of data, be it via keyboard, voice recognition or other means. "Having an audit version of the [records that] indicates which of these tools were used could enable detection of patterns of abuse or fraud," the researchers said. The standards allude to coding the health records in such a way that the data could be analyzed -- or mined -- to detect patterns that suggest fraud. Upon issuing the proposal Jan. 12, RTI International researchers requested comments from the public.
Campaigns: Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois ended months of speculation Tuesday by announcing that he has established a committee to explore a potential Democratic bid for the White House in 2008. In a video posted to the committee's Web site, he said he would formally announce Feb. 10 whether he intends to seek the presidency. "Running for the presidency is a profound decision, a decision no one should make on the basis of media hype or personal ambition alone," he said. "And so before I committed myself and my family to this race, I wanted to be sure that this was right for us and, more importantly, right for the country." Obama has been active on several technology-related issues since being sworn in to the Senate in 2005. He recently co-sponsored legislation to ensure that the Internet remains open and accessible to all consumers and competitors.
Lobbying: A regional technology association and a national one have announced a resolution to join forces on some fronts this year. The Northern Virginia Technology Council and the Information Technology Association of America say they will work together on public policy issues, programs and events of interest to both groups. With its 1,100 members, NVTC will offer advice and support on regulatory issues in Virginia, and ITAA, with its 325 corporate members, will offer the same counsel and support on international and national legislation and regulation. The groups also open select events to each other's members. "The technology industry's future depends upon its ability to reach government and markets at all levels and all locations -- from the grassroots to the global," ITAA President and CEO Phil Bond said. NVTC President and CEO Bobbie Kilberg called the move a "natural alliance, which will provide value to our members."
E-Government: The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services agency has launched an Internet site allowing non-citizens to now enter address changes online. All non-citizens had been required to mail the immigration agency written changes within 10 days of moving. "Not only is this a terrific service for our customers, in the long run it is a great cost [saver] and timesaver," said Emilio Gonzalez, the agency's director. The agency processes more than 1 million change-of-address requests each year. Customers now will get immediate confirmation of their submissions. Phase two of the online system -- projected to launch in May -- will include a feature that lets applicants with pending naturalization requests update their addresses online.
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