Washington, DC (PRWEB) June 29, 2009 -- Twenty billion dollars is being distributed by the federal government to improve our nation's Health Information Technology (HIT). The best case scenario is those funds "stimulate" a new methodology for which Electronic Health Records (EHR) take hold. One potential downside to this national investment in healthcare technology is the technology is developed, but not fully accepted by clinicians.

Van Eperen Public Relations' (VE PR) CEO Laura Van Eperen attended the Technology Leadership Forum by GTSI and Federal Computer Week entitled "Let's Talk Health IT…The Critical Connection between Patient and Provider" on June 17, 2009 at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center in Washington, DC.

"I was most impressed with the presentation by Dr. Lynn Vogel, VP and Chief Information Officer and Associate Professor, Bioinformatics and Computational Biology, The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center," said Van Eperen. Click here for his presentation and other forum speakers: http://tinyurl.com/l5r566. "Dr. Vogel stated the handling of healthcare data - the issue we're trying to resolve - must be reexamined, suggesting the conversation turn from the issue of moving data, to storing and retrieving the data. He said the volume of today's medical data far exceeds the amount from the past due to genomic data. He says it is unsustainable on old IT architecture. Dr. Vogel, along with another forum speaker, Dr. Mark Blatt, Director for Healthcare Industry Solutions, Intel, mentioned the new technologies must be used or it is useless."

"Both the IT and clinical speakers underscored the importance of quick integration of the new health information technologies because, historically, adoption of new technology has been slow," said Van Eperen. "It's critical the physicians, nurses and other medical professionals on the front lines of patient care receive user-friendly training opportunities. VE PR suggests healthcare organizations involve not only their Chief Information Officers, but communications professionals, early in the process to develop strategic communications outreach programs so the highest integration rates are realized."

VE PR is an award-winning communications consulting firm with a healthcare practice area. The firm works with public and private organizations to plan and execute strategic communications programs.
For more information on VE PR, contact Laura Van Eperen at laurav@vepublicrelations.com or 301/581.7298, or visit VE PR at www.vepublicrelations.com.