Health information policy: on preparing for the next war

As policymakers demand more and better information about health care, the private health information technology industry is investing heavily to produce the "paperless clinical enterprise" of the future: the infrastructure that will be required to satisfy those demands. Developments on a number of policy fronts, however--from medical privacy legislation to clinical software regulation to "telehealth"--suggest the need for a conscious health information policy that will inform the debate in each niche area with a larger sense of whether public policy will promote or retard private innovation in this area. Given the stakes involved, and the immediacy of the issues, leadership in this direction is badly needed.