The 2008 Presidential election has been one of the best things that could have happened for healthcare and thus. Regardless of whether Hillary Clinton wins the Democratic Party’s nomination, she has placed healthcare at the top of her domestic agenda and therefore, her challengers have had to make it a priority for their campaigns as well.

Clinton plans to “institute a new ‘paperless’ health information technology system” to improve quality of care and decrease costs. She would provide financial incentives as well as funding, “an up-front and phased-out $3 billion a year,” for providers to adopt healthcare IT. Additionally, Clinton would champion computerised physician order entry (CPOE) and require providers taking part in Medicare and Medicaid to use technology in their practices.

Obama, arguably the most technologically savvy of the candidates with his proposed technology and innovation policies, has also included a plan to invest in electronic health information technology systems. Not only does he intend to spend “$10 billion a year over the next five years” on healthcare IT, he actually refers to electronic health records (EHRs), specifically, in his plan. He also cites the Veterans Health Administration’s IT system as a model for other healthcare systems.

McCain vaguely calls on “promot[ing] rapid deployment of 21st century information systems” in healthcare without citing EHRs or additional funding. However, his plan is refreshingly unique in that it gives a nod to telehealth (which he refers to as telemedicine), a technology that European countries have seen the value in, but is not talked about as much in the US.

However, the candidates’ plans are still a far cry from the idealised national network the healthcare IT community has imagined and, of course, there’s no guarantee that if any one were elected they would be able to deliver on their proposals. The focus on universal insurance could also overshadow healthcare technology.

For additional reading visit: Healthcare Technology Opportunities in the Electronic Health Record Market