The House Energy and Commerce Committee has approved the PRO(TECH)T Act, advancing legislation that would help doctors and hospitals acquire Health IT systems and speed up the process of moving federal health programs into electronic medical records.

The House Ways and Means Committee is also addressing Health IT, but we're still hoping legislation gets to the full House, that the Senate acts on its WIRED legislation, and the two can be reconciled and signed into law this year. It's a good sign that the Energy and Commerce bill is bipartisan and was passed on a voice vote after some of the privacy concerns were worked out. Privacy will likely remain a sticking point for some lawmakers going forward, but this is progress.

HR 6357 the "Protecting Records, Optimizing Treatment, and Easing Communication through Healthcare Technology Act of 2008" will promote more use of electronic medical records, which can improve health care quality, reduce errors, and bring down costs. It also promotes the nationwide adoption of a health IT infrastructure so that health information can be shared from one hospital or doctor's office to another, across the country.