ABSTRACT
Introduction Around the world, signifi cant movement is underway in processing and maintaining healthcare information that makes this the Decade of Health Information Technology. Various governments are making billion-dollar investments in establishing electronic health networks. In the United States, this movement began in 2004, when then U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Tommy Thompson and David Brailer, MD, PhD, the country’s fi rst health information technology coordinator, unveiled a strategic plan with goals for adoption and diffusion of an electronic health record (EHR). The aim of implementing the EHR was seamless continuity of care across settings and clinicians, maximum informed consumer choice, and improved public health through timely incident reporting.1 The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009, signed by President Barack Obama in February 2009, earmarked $19.2 billion for this purpose.2 In April 2009, the U.S. Government Accountability Offi ce (GAO) appointed a Health Information Technology Policy Committee to create a framework for development and adoption of such a nationwide infrastructure.3 A nurse, Connie Delaney, was appointed to that effort. In the fi ve years between the launching of a plan and concrete development in that direction, nurses have labored to be seen as key stakeholders in this defi ning movement.
