I 

110TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 2406 

To authorize the National Institute of Standards and Technology to increase 

its efforts in support of the integration of the healthcare information 

enterprise in the United States. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

MAY 21, 2007 

Mr. GORDON of Tennessee introduced the following bill; which was referred 

to the Committee on Science and Technology 

A BILL 

To authorize the National Institute of Standards and Technology to increase its efforts in support of the integration 

of the healthcare information enterprise in the United 

States. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. FINDINGS. 

4 Congress finds the following: 

5 (1) The National Institute of Standards and 

6 Technology, because of the electronic commerce, in7 formation technology, security, and privacy expertise 

8 in its laboratories and the healthcare component of 

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1 the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, and 

2 its long history of working with the information 

3 technology and healthcare industries, is well 

4 equipped to address the technical challenges posed 

5 by healthcare information enterprise integration. 

6 (2) Therefore, it is in the national interest for 

7 the National Institute of Standards and Technology 

8 to accelerate its efforts— 

9 (A) to develop standards, standards con10 formance tests, and enterprise integration proc11 esses that are necessary to increase efficiency 

12 and quality of care, and lower costs in the 

13 healthcare industry; and 

14 (B) ensuring that all components of the 

15 United States healthcare infrastructure can be 

16 a part of an electronic information network that 

17 is reliable, interoperable, and secure, and pro18 tects privacy. 

19 SEC. 2. HEALTHCARE INFORMATION ENTERPRISE INTE20 GRATION INITIATIVE. 

21 (a) ESTABLISHMENT.—The Director of the National 

22 Institute of Standards and Technology shall establish an 

23 initiative for advancing healthcare information enterprise 

24 integration within the United States. In carrying out this 

25 section, the Director shall involve various units of the Namstockstill on PROD1PC66 with BILLS

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1 tional Institute of Standards and Technology, including its 

2 laboratories and the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality 

3 Program. This initiative shall build upon ongoing efforts 

4 of the National Institute of Standards and Technology, 

5 the private sector, and other Federal agencies, shall in6 volve consortia that include government and industry, and 

7 shall be designed to permit healthcare information enter8 prise integration. 

9 (b) TECHNICAL ACTIVITIES.—In order to carry out 

10 this section, the Director may focus on— 

11 (1) information technology standards and inter12 operability analysis, which may include the develop13 ment of technical testbeds; 

14 (2) software conformance and certification; 

15 (3) security and privacy; 

16 (4) medical device communication; 

17 (5) supporting the provisioning of technical ar18 chitecture products for management and retrieval; 

19 (6) supporting the establishment of conform20 ance testing infrastructure; 

21 (7) information management, including elec22 tronic health records management and data summa23 rization; and 

24 (8) health information usability, access, and de25 cision support. 

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1 (c) OTHER ACTIVITIES.—The Director may assist 

2 healthcare representatives and organizations and Federal 

3 agencies in the development of technical roadmaps that 

4 identify the remaining steps needed to ensure that stand5 ards for application protocols, interoperability, data integ6 rity, and security and privacy, as well as the corollary con7 formance test protocols, will be in place. These roadmaps 

8 shall rely upon voluntary consensus standards where pos9 sible. 

10 (d) PLANS AND REPORTS.—Not later than 90 days 

11 after the date of enactment of this Act, and annually 

12 thereafter, the Director shall transmit a report to the 

13 Committee on Science and Technology of the House of 

14 Representatives and the Committee on Commerce, 

15 Science, and Transportation of the Senate on the activities 

16 of the National Institute of Standards and Technology 

17 under this section. 

18 SEC. 3. FEDERAL HEALTHCARE INFORMATION TECH19 NOLOGY SYSTEMS AND INFRASTRUCTURE. 

20 (a) GUIDELINES AND STANDARDS.—Not later than 

21 6 months after the date of enactment of this Act, the Di22 rector of the National Institute of Standards and Tech23 nology, in consultation with industry and appropriate Fed24 eral agencies, shall develop technology-neutral information 

25 technology infrastructure guidelines and standards, or 

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1 adopt existing technology-neutral industry guidelines and 

2 standards, for use by Federal agencies to enable those 

3 agencies to effectively select and utilize healthcare infor4 mation technologies in a manner that is— 

5 (1) sufficiently secure and provides adequate 

6 privacy to meet the needs of those agencies, their 

7 transaction partners, and the general public; and 

8 (2) interoperable, to the maximum extent pos9 sible. 

10 (b) ELEMENTS.—The guidelines and standards devel11 oped under subsection (a) shall— 

12 (1) promote the use by Federal agencies of 

13 commercially available products that incorporate the 

14 guidelines and standards developed under subsection 

15 (a); 

16 (2) develop uniform testing procedures suitable 

17 for determining the conformance of commercially 

18 available and Federal healthcare information tech19 nology products with the guidelines and standards; 

20 (3) support and promote the testing of elec21 tronic healthcare information technologies utilized by 

22 Federal agencies; 

23 (4) provide protection and privacy profiles; 

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1 (5) establish a core set of interoperability speci2 fications in transactions between Federal agencies 

3 and their transaction partners; and 

4 (6) include validation criteria to enable Federal 

5 agencies to select healthcare information tech6 nologies appropriate to their needs. 

7 (c) REPORTS.—Not later than 18 months after the 

8 date of enactment of this Act, and annually thereafter, 

9 the Director shall transmit to the Congress a report that 

10 includes a description and analysis of— 

11 (1) the level of interoperability, privacy, and se12 curity of technologies for sharing healthcare infor13 mation among Federal agencies; and 

14 (2) the problems Federal agencies are having 

15 with, and the progress such agencies are making to16 ward, ensuring interoperable, secure, and private 

17 healthcare information systems and electronic 

18 healthcare records. 

19 (d) SENIOR INTERAGENCY COUNCIL ON FEDERAL

20 HEALTHCARE INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY INFRASTRUC21 TURE.—The Undersecretary of Commerce for Technology 

22 shall establish a Senior Interagency Council on Federal 

23 Healthcare Information Technology Infrastructure. The 

24 responsibilities of the Council are to— 

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1 (1) coordinate the development and deployment 

2 of healthcare information technology solutions across 

3 all Federal departments and agencies, with emphasis 

4 on interoperability, privacy, and security issues; 

5 (2) coordinate the associated technology trans6 fer to and from the private sector; and 

7 (3) coordinate Federal funding and participa8 tion in private, voluntary standards development or9 ganizations, as related to electronic healthcare 

10 records systems. 

11 SEC. 4. RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMS. 

12 (a) HEALTHCARE INFORMATION ENTERPRISE INTE13 GRATION RESEARCH CENTERS.— 

14 (1) IN GENERAL.—The Director of the National 

15 Institute of Standards and Technology, in consulta16 tion the Director of the National Science Foundation 

17 and other appropriate Federal agencies, shall estab18 lish a program of assistance to institutions of higher 

19 education (or consortia thereof) that enter into part20 nerships with for-profit entities or nonprofit entities 

21 to establish multidisciplinary Centers for Healthcare 

22 Information Enterprise Integration. The partner23 ships may also include government laboratories. 

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1 (2) REVIEW; COMPETITION.—Grants shall be 

2 awarded under this subsection on a merit-reviewed, 

3 competitive basis. 

4 (3) PURPOSE.—The purposes of the Centers 

5 shall be— 

6 (A) to generate innovative approaches to 

7 healthcare information enterprise integration by 

8 conducting cutting-edge, multidisciplinary re9 search on the systems challenges to healthcare 

10 delivery; and 

11 (B) the development and use of informa12 tion technologies and other complementary 

13 fields. 

14 (4) RESEARCH AREAS.—Research areas may in15 clude— 

16 (A) the interfaces between human informa17 tion and communications technology systems; 

18 (B) voice-recognition systems; 

19 (C) software that improves interoperability 

20 and connectivity among systems; 

21 (D) software dependability in systems crit22 ical to healthcare delivery; 

23 (E) measurement of the impact of informa24 tion technologies on the quality and productivity 

25 of healthcare; 

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1 (F) healthcare information enterprise man2 agement; and 

3 (G) information technology security and 

4 integrity. 

5 (5) APPLICATIONS.—An institution of higher 

6 education (or a consortium thereof) seeking funding 

7 under this subsection shall submit an application to 

8 the Director at such time, in such manner, and con9 taining such information as the Director may re10 quire. The application shall include, at a minimum, 

11 a description of— 

12 (A) the research projects that will be un13 dertaken by the Center and the respective con14 tributions of the participating entities; 

15 (B) how the Center will promote active col16 laboration among scientists and engineers from 

17 different disciplines, such as information tech18 nology, biologic sciences, management, social 

19 sciences, and other appropriate disciplines; 

20 (C) technology transfer activities to dem21 onstrate and diffuse the research results, tech22 nologies, and knowledge; and 

23 (D) how the Center will contribute to the 

24 education and training of researchers and other 

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1 professionals in fields relevant to healthcare in2 formation enterprise integration. 

3 (b) NATIONAL INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY RE4 SEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM.—The National 

5 High-Performance Computing Program established by 

6 section 101 of the High-Performance Computing Act of 

7 1991 (15 U.S.C. 5511) shall coordinate Federal research 

8 and development programs related to the development and 

9 deployment of health information technology, including ac10 tivities related to— 

11 (1) computer infrastructure; 

12 (2) data privacy and security; 

13 (3) development of large-scale, distributed, reli14 able computing systems; 

15 (4) wired, wireless, and hybrid high-speed net16 working; 

17 (5) development of software and software-inten18 sive systems; 

19 (6) human-computer interaction and informa20 tion management technologies; and 

21 (7) the social and economic implications of in22 formation technology. 

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