House Committee Unanimously Approves Health IT Legislation

 The House Science and Technology Committee has unanimously approved legislation (HR 2406) that would provide $16 million to the National Institute of Standards and Technology to increase its efforts to create a national database for patient records. The legislation would direct NIST to create a Healthcare Information Enterprise Integration Initiative to focus on technical standards for implementing electronic health records. The initiative would include participation by other government agencies, as well as the health care and IT industries