On May 11, 2009 assemblyman Herb Conaway, Jr, District 7, and Upendra Chivukula, District 17 presented a bill which would make the distribution of any EMR in the state of NJ that is not certified by CCHIT illegal by January 1, 2011.

I propose that physicians band together and join the new “HIT 1115 Project,” which is the date in which we can all reevaluate our participation in Medicare.

Since CCHIT first came onto the scene back in 2006, we've usually read numerous partisan rants about the issues of HIT/CCHIT/HIMSS, with an occasional major clash among those of us mere mortals with a strong interest in the matter. Not often do we hear of a heated personal interchange involving two of the best-known experts in the field.

The problem with HITECH is that there is a "dark side," which involves the powerful lobbying of the "enterprise" EHR vendors who are trying to capture market share at the expense of their smaller competitors and of their physician buyers.

On 5/7/2009 GE announced that it has launched a $6 billion healthcare initiative called Healthymagination, $3 billion of which will be spent over the next 6 years for research and development of HIT and other tools that could "lower costs and boost quality."