[Congressional Bills 110th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 2406 Introduced in House (IH)]







110th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 2406

  To authorize the National Institute of Standards and Technology to 
 increase its efforts in support of the integration of the healthcare 
              information enterprise in the United States.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                              May 21, 2007

   Mr. Gordon of Tennessee introduced the following bill; which was 
          referred to the Committee on Science and Technology

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
  To authorize the National Institute of Standards and Technology to 
 increase its efforts in support of the integration of the healthcare 
              information enterprise in the United States.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds the following:
            (1) The National Institute of Standards and Technology, 
        because of the electronic commerce, information technology, 
        security, and privacy expertise in its laboratories and the 
        healthcare component of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality 
        Award, and its long history of working with the information 
        technology and healthcare industries, is well equipped to 
        address the technical challenges posed by healthcare 
        information enterprise integration.
            (2) Therefore, it is in the national interest for the 
        National Institute of Standards and Technology to accelerate 
        its efforts--
                    (A) to develop standards, standards conformance 
                tests, and enterprise integration processes that are 
                necessary to increase efficiency and quality of care, 
                and lower costs in the healthcare industry; and
                    (B) ensuring that all components of the United 
                States healthcare infrastructure can be a part of an 
                electronic information network that is reliable, 
                interoperable, and secure, and protects privacy.

SEC. 2. HEALTHCARE INFORMATION ENTERPRISE INTEGRATION INITIATIVE.

    (a) Establishment.--The Director of the National Institute of 
Standards and Technology shall establish an initiative for advancing 
healthcare information enterprise integration within the United States. 
In carrying out this section, the Director shall involve various units 
of the National Institute of Standards and Technology, including its 
laboratories and the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Program. This 
initiative shall build upon ongoing efforts of the National Institute 
of Standards and Technology, the private sector, and other Federal 
agencies, shall involve consortia that include government and industry, 
and shall be designed to permit healthcare information enterprise 
integration.
    (b) Technical Activities.--In order to carry out this section, the 
Director may focus on--
            (1) information technology standards and interoperability 
        analysis, which may include the development of technical 
        testbeds;
            (2) software conformance and certification;
            (3) security and privacy;
            (4) medical device communication;
            (5) supporting the provisioning of technical architecture 
        products for management and retrieval;
            (6) supporting the establishment of conformance testing 
        infrastructure;
            (7) information management, including electronic health 
        records management and data summarization; and
            (8) health information usability, access, and decision 
        support.
    (c) Other Activities.--The Director may assist healthcare 
representatives and organizations and Federal agencies in the 
development of technical roadmaps that identify the remaining steps 
needed to ensure that standards for application protocols, 
interoperability, data integrity, and security and privacy, as well as 
the corollary conformance test protocols, will be in place. These 
roadmaps shall rely upon voluntary consensus standards where possible.
    (d) Plans and Reports.--Not later than 90 days after the date of 
enactment of this Act, and annually thereafter, the Director shall 
transmit a report to the Committee on Science and Technology of the 
House of Representatives and the Committee on Commerce, Science, and 
Transportation of the Senate on the activities of the National 
Institute of Standards and Technology under this section.

SEC. 3. FEDERAL HEALTHCARE INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY SYSTEMS AND 
              INFRASTRUCTURE.

    (a) Guidelines and Standards.--Not later than 6 months after the 
date of enactment of this Act, the Director of the National Institute 
of Standards and Technology, in consultation with industry and 
appropriate Federal agencies, shall develop technology-neutral 
information technology infrastructure guidelines and standards, or 
adopt existing technology-neutral industry guidelines and standards, 
for use by Federal agencies to enable those agencies to effectively 
select and utilize healthcare information technologies in a manner that 
is--
            (1) sufficiently secure and provides adequate privacy to 
        meet the needs of those agencies, their transaction partners, 
        and the general public; and
            (2) interoperable, to the maximum extent possible.
    (b) Elements.--The guidelines and standards developed under 
subsection (a) shall--
            (1) promote the use by Federal agencies of commercially 
        available products that incorporate the guidelines and 
        standards developed under subsection (a);
            (2) develop uniform testing procedures suitable for 
        determining the conformance of commercially available and 
        Federal healthcare information technology products with the 
        guidelines and standards;
            (3) support and promote the testing of electronic 
        healthcare information technologies utilized by Federal 
        agencies;
            (4) provide protection and privacy profiles;
            (5) establish a core set of interoperability specifications 
        in transactions between Federal agencies and their transaction 
        partners; and
            (6) include validation criteria to enable Federal agencies 
        to select healthcare information technologies appropriate to 
        their needs.
    (c) Reports.--Not later than 18 months after the date of enactment 
of this Act, and annually thereafter, the Director shall transmit to 
the Congress a report that includes a description and analysis of--
            (1) the level of interoperability, privacy, and security of 
        technologies for sharing healthcare information among Federal 
        agencies; and
            (2) the problems Federal agencies are having with, and the 
        progress such agencies are making toward, ensuring 
        interoperable, secure, and private healthcare information 
        systems and electronic healthcare records.
    (d) Senior Interagency Council on Federal Healthcare Information 
Technology Infrastructure.--The Undersecretary of Commerce for 
Technology shall establish a Senior Interagency Council on Federal 
Healthcare Information Technology Infrastructure. The responsibilities 
of the Council are to--
            (1) coordinate the development and deployment of healthcare 
        information technology solutions across all Federal departments 
        and agencies, with emphasis on interoperability, privacy, and 
        security issues;
            (2) coordinate the associated technology transfer to and 
        from the private sector; and
            (3) coordinate Federal funding and participation in 
        private, voluntary standards development organizations, as 
        related to electronic healthcare records systems.

SEC. 4. RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMS.

    (a) Healthcare Information Enterprise Integration Research 
Centers.--
            (1) In general.--The Director of the National Institute of 
        Standards and Technology, in consultation the Director of the 
        National Science Foundation and other appropriate Federal 
        agencies, shall establish a program of assistance to 
        institutions of higher education (or consortia thereof) that 
        enter into partnerships with for-profit entities or nonprofit 
        entities to establish multidisciplinary Centers for Healthcare 
        Information Enterprise Integration. The partnerships may also 
        include government laboratories.
            (2) Review; competition.--Grants shall be awarded under 
        this subsection on a merit-reviewed, competitive basis.
            (3) Purpose.--The purposes of the Centers shall be--
                    (A) to generate innovative approaches to healthcare 
                information enterprise integration by conducting 
                cutting-edge, multidisciplinary research on the systems 
                challenges to healthcare delivery; and
                    (B) the development and use of information 
                technologies and other complementary fields.
            (4) Research areas.--Research areas may include--
                    (A) the interfaces between human information and 
                communications technology systems;
                    (B) voice-recognition systems;
                    (C) software that improves interoperability and 
                connectivity among systems;
                    (D) software dependability in systems critical to 
                healthcare delivery;
                    (E) measurement of the impact of information 
                technologies on the quality and productivity of 
                healthcare;
                    (F) healthcare information enterprise management; 
                and
                    (G) information technology security and integrity.
            (5) Applications.--An institution of higher education (or a 
        consortium thereof) seeking funding under this subsection shall 
        submit an application to the Director at such time, in such 
        manner, and containing such information as the Director may 
        require. The application shall include, at a minimum, a 
        description of--
                    (A) the research projects that will be undertaken 
                by the Center and the respective contributions of the 
                participating entities;
                    (B) how the Center will promote active 
                collaboration among scientists and engineers from 
                different disciplines, such as information technology, 
                biologic sciences, management, social sciences, and 
                other appropriate disciplines;
                    (C) technology transfer activities to demonstrate 
                and diffuse the research results, technologies, and 
                knowledge; and
                    (D) how the Center will contribute to the education 
                and training of researchers and other professionals in 
                fields relevant to healthcare information enterprise 
                integration.
    (b) National Information Technology Research and Development 
Program.--The National High-Performance Computing Program established 
by section 101 of the High-Performance Computing Act of 1991 (15 U.S.C. 
5511) shall coordinate Federal research and development programs 
related to the development and deployment of health information 
technology, including activities related to--
            (1) computer infrastructure;
            (2) data privacy and security;
            (3) development of large-scale, distributed, reliable 
        computing systems;
            (4) wired, wireless, and hybrid high-speed networking;
            (5) development of software and software-intensive systems;
            (6) human-computer interaction and information management 
        technologies; and
            (7) the social and economic implications of information 
        technology.
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