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 Tech-
nology to increase its efforts in support of the integration 
of the healthcare information enterprise in the United 
States. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. FINDINGS. 
Congress finds the following: 
(1) The National Institute of Standards and 
Technology, because of the electronic commerce, in-
formation technology, security, and privacy expertise 
in its laboratories and the healthcare component of 
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the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, and 
its long history of working with the information 
technology 
and 
healthcare 
industries, 
is 
well 
equipped to address the technical challenges posed 
by healthcare information enterprise integration. 
(2) Therefore, it is in the national interest for 
the National Institute of Standards and Technology 
to accelerate its efforts— 
(A) to develop standards, standards con-
formance tests, and enterprise integration proc-
esses that are necessary to increase efficiency 
and quality of care, and lower costs in the 
healthcare industry; and 
(B) ensuring that all components of the 
United States healthcare infrastructure can be 
a part of an electronic information network that 
is reliable, interoperable, and secure, and pro-
tects privacy. 
SEC. 2. HEALTHCARE INFORMATION ENTERPRISE INTE-
GRATION INITIATIVE. 
(a) ESTABLISHMENT.—The Director of the National 
Institute of Standards and Technology shall establish an 
initiative for advancing healthcare information enterprise 
integration within the United States. In carrying out this 
section, the Director shall involve various units of the Na-
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tional Institute of Standards and Technology, including its 
laboratories and the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality 
Program. This initiative shall build upon ongoing efforts 
of the National Institute of Standards and Technology, 
the private sector, and other Federal agencies, shall in-
volve consortia that include government and industry, and 
shall be designed to permit healthcare information enter-
prise integration. 
(b) TECHNICAL ACTIVITIES.—In order to carry out 
this section, the Director may focus on— 
(1) information technology standards and inter-
operability analysis, which may include the develop-
ment of technical testbeds; 
(2) software conformance and certification; 
(3) security and privacy; 
(4) medical device communication; 
(5) supporting the provisioning of technical ar-
chitecture products for management and retrieval; 
(6) supporting the establishment of conform-
ance testing infrastructure; 
(7) information management, including elec-
tronic health records management and data summa-
rization; and 
(8) health information usability, access, and de-
cision support. 
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(c) OTHER ACTIVITIES.—The Director may assist 
healthcare representatives and organizations and Federal 
agencies in the development of technical roadmaps that 
identify the remaining steps needed to ensure that stand-
ards for application protocols, interoperability, data integ-
rity, and security and privacy, as well as the corollary con-
formance test protocols, will be in place. These roadmaps 
shall rely upon voluntary consensus standards where pos-
sible. 
(d) PLANS AND REPORTS.—Not later than 90 days 
after the date of enactment of this Act, and annually 
thereafter, the Director shall transmit a report to the 
Committee on Science and Technology of the House of 
Representatives and the Committee on Commerce, 
Science, and Transportation of the Senate on the activities 
of the National Institute of Standards and Technology 
under this section. 
SEC. 3. FEDERAL HEALTHCARE INFORMATION TECH-
NOLOGY SYSTEMS AND INFRASTRUCTURE. 
(a) GUIDELINES AND STANDARDS.—Not later than 
6 months after the date of enactment of this Act, the Di-
rector of the National Institute of Standards and Tech-
nology, in consultation with industry and appropriate Fed-
eral agencies, shall develop technology-neutral information 
technology infrastructure guidelines and standards, or 
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adopt existing technology-neutral industry guidelines and 
standards, for use by Federal agencies to enable those 
agencies to effectively select and utilize healthcare infor-
mation technologies in a manner that is— 
(1) sufficiently secure and provides adequate 
privacy to meet the needs of those agencies, their 
transaction partners, and the general public; and 
(2) interoperable, to the maximum extent pos-
sible. 
(b) ELEMENTS.—The guidelines and standards devel-
oped under subsection (a) shall— 
(1) promote the use by Federal agencies of 
commercially available products that incorporate the 
guidelines and standards developed under subsection 
(a); 
(2) develop uniform testing procedures suitable 
for determining the conformance of commercially 
available and Federal healthcare information tech-
nology products with the guidelines and standards; 
(3) support and promote the testing of elec-
tronic healthcare information technologies utilized by 
Federal agencies; 
(4) provide protection and privacy profiles; 
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(5) establish a core set of interoperability speci-
fications in transactions between Federal agencies 
and their transaction partners; and 
(6) include validation criteria to enable Federal 
agencies to select healthcare information tech-
nologies appropriate to their needs. 
(c) REPORTS.—Not later than 18 months after the 
date of enactment of this Act, and annually thereafter, 
the Director shall transmit to the Congress a report that 
includes a description and analysis of— 
(1) the level of interoperability, privacy, and se-
curity of technologies for sharing healthcare infor-
mation among Federal agencies; and 
(2) the problems Federal agencies are having 
with, and the progress such agencies are making to-
ward, ensuring interoperable, secure, and private 
healthcare 
information 
systems 
and 
electronic 
healthcare records. 
(d) SENIOR INTERAGENCY COUNCIL ON FEDERAL 
HEALTHCARE INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY INFRASTRUC-
TURE.—The Undersecretary of Commerce for Technology 
shall establish a Senior Interagency Council on Federal 
Healthcare Information Technology Infrastructure. The 
responsibilities of the Council are to— 
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(1) coordinate the development and deployment 
of healthcare information technology solutions across 
all Federal departments and agencies, with emphasis 
on interoperability, privacy, and security issues; 
(2) coordinate the associated technology trans-
fer to and from the private sector; and 
(3) coordinate Federal funding and participa-
tion in private, voluntary standards development or-
ganizations, as related to electronic healthcare 
records systems. 
SEC. 4. RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMS. 
(a) HEALTHCARE INFORMATION ENTERPRISE INTE-
GRATION RESEARCH CENTERS.— 
(1) IN GENERAL.—The Director of the National 
Institute of Standards and Technology, in consulta-
tion the Director of the National Science Foundation 
and other appropriate Federal agencies, shall estab-
lish a program of assistance to institutions of higher 
education (or consortia thereof) that enter into part-
nerships with for-profit entities or nonprofit entities 
to establish multidisciplinary Centers for Healthcare 
Information Enterprise Integration. The partner-
ships may also include government laboratories. 
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(2) REVIEW; COMPETITION.—Grants shall be 
awarded under this subsection on a merit-reviewed, 
competitive basis. 
(3) PURPOSE.—The purposes of the Centers 
shall be— 
(A) to generate innovative approaches to 
healthcare information enterprise integration by 
conducting cutting-edge, multidisciplinary re-
search on the systems challenges to healthcare 
delivery; and 
(B) the development and use of informa-
tion technologies and other complementary 
fields. 
(4) RESEARCH AREAS.—Research areas may in-
clude— 
(A) the interfaces between human informa-
tion and communications technology systems; 
(B) voice-recognition systems; 
(C) software that improves interoperability 
and connectivity among systems; 
(D) software dependability in systems crit-
ical to healthcare delivery; 
(E) measurement of the impact of informa-
tion technologies on the quality and productivity 
of healthcare; 
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(F) healthcare information enterprise man-
agement; and 
(G) information technology security and 
integrity. 
(5) APPLICATIONS.—An institution of higher 
education (or a consortium thereof) seeking funding 
under this subsection shall submit an application to 
the Director at such time, in such manner, and con-
taining such information as the Director may re-
quire. The application shall include, at a minimum, 
a description of— 
(A) the research projects that will be un-
dertaken by the Center and the respective con-
tributions of the participating entities; 
(B) how the Center will promote active col-
laboration among scientists and engineers from 
different disciplines, such as information tech-
nology, biologic sciences, management, social 
sciences, and other appropriate disciplines; 
(C) technology transfer activities to dem-
onstrate and diffuse the research results, tech-
nologies, and knowledge; and 
(D) how the Center will contribute to the 
education and training of researchers and other 
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professionals in fields relevant to healthcare in-
formation enterprise integration. 
(b) NATIONAL
INFORMATION
TECHNOLOGY
RE-
SEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM.—The National 
High-Performance Computing Program established by 
section 101 of the High-Performance Computing Act of 
1991 (15 U.S.C. 5511) shall coordinate Federal research 
and development programs related to the development and 
deployment of health information technology, including ac-
tivities related to— 
(1) computer infrastructure; 
(2) data privacy and security; 
(3) development of large-scale, distributed, reli-
able computing systems; 
(4) wired, wireless, and hybrid high-speed net-
working; 
(5) development of software and software-inten-
sive systems; 
(6) human-computer interaction and informa-
tion management technologies; and 
(7) the social and economic implications of in-
formation technology. 
Æ 
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