Obama Delivers Major Innovation Strategy with Health IT/Tech as Key Focus
President Obama delivered a major policy speech on September 21, 2009 in upstate New York on the role of innovation in developing growth and quality jobs.  In discussing healthcare, Obama said “the recovery plan that we passed earlier this year has begun to modernize our health system.  So innovation can also help drive down the cost for everybody.  We are taking long-overdue steps to computerize America’s health records.  And this is going to reduce the waste and errors that cost billions of dollars and thousands of lives -– while protecting patients’ privacy.  And it’s important to note, as well, that the records that are held — each of us having our own medical records in digital form — holds the potential of offering patients the chance to be more active participants in the prevention and treatment of illness.  And health IT, health information technology, if implemented effectively, has the potential to unlock so many unanticipated benefits because it provides patterns of data that we don’t yet collect but could reveal discoveries that we can’t predict in terms of how to cure illnesses.”

White House White Paper (pdf):
A Strategy for American Innovation: Driving Towards Sustainable Growth and Quality Jobs
Drive Breakthroughs in Health IT
While President Obama delivered his speech at Hudson Valley Community College on September 21, 2009, the National Economic Council and the Office of Science and Technology Policy in the Executive Office of the President released this major blueprint on innovation. 

The overall strategy is pictured on a triangle which points to “innovation for sustainable growth and quality jobs.” The base of the triangle shows  ”invest(ing) in the building blocks of American innovation.” The middle stage is “promoting competitive markets that spur productive entrepreneurship.” Four major national initiatives to “catalyze breakthroughs for national priorities” are shown at the top stage of the triangle.

The four accelerated game-changing programs are envisioned to  “Drive breakthroughs in Health IT, unleash a clean energy revolution, support advanced vehicle technology, (and) address the ‘grand challenges’ of the 21st century.”  Health IT, clean energy, and advanced vehicle technology are “sectors of exceptional national importance where the market is unlikely to produce the desirable outcomes on its own…In these industries where markets may fail on their own, government can be part of the solution.” 

Excerpts from the White Paper
Drive Innovations in Health Care Technology
The inefficiencies in our health care system raise costs and reduce the quality of care. New advances in health information technology will increase efficiency while broad reform will free businesses and individuals to innovate and grow.
–Expand the use of health IT. Expanded use of advanced health information technology (e.g. electronic medical records, mobile health applications, sensors for monitoring chronic diseases) will help prevent medical errors, improve health care quality, begin to modernize the American health care system and reduce costs. The Recovery Act provides over $19 billion in investments to modernize health information technology.
–Renew our commitment to medical research. The Recovery act included a $10 billion expansion in health research. This will fund projects such as an initiative to identify all of the genetic changes involved in 20 types of cancer, clinical trials of medicines that could help stop the HIV/AIDS pandemic, the largest infusion of funding to discover the causes and treatment for autism, and using DNA sequencing to discover how to prevent and treat heart, lung, and blood diseases
– Slow the growth of health care costs. The President is committed to comprehensive reform for a health care system that makes it possible to improve the quality of care while slowing the growth rate of costs. Doing this will free up resources that can be used to invest in American businesses and improve the living standards for all Americans.

White House Blog: A Vision for Innovation, Growth, and Quality Jobs
Larry Summers, Director of the National Economic Council, wrote in the White House blog on September 21, 2009, “President Obama laid out his vision for innovation, growth, and quality jobs earlier today at Hudson Valley Community College.  The President’s plan is grounded not only in the American tradition of entrepreneurship, but also in the traditions of robust economic thought.”

New York Times/AP Story: Obama Touts Efforts to Help Economy, Colleges