WASHINGTON (7 June 2007)
—
The role technology can play in helping the
United States manage health care costs by
advancing the diagnosis, treatment and
prevention of disease will be examined in a
conference at the National Institute of
Standards and Technology (NIST) in Gaithersburg,
Md., on 25 September.
Major technological advances have greatly
improved patient care since the 1970s, but have
come at a steep price. U.S. health care spending
is expected to rise from nearly $2 trillion in
2002 to more than $4 trillion by 2015.
The
goal of "Economic Strategy for Health Care
through Bio and Information Standards and
Technologies" is to emphasize the need to
develop a long-term economic strategy for
implementing bio and health care information
technologies into our health care system. By
developing breakthrough biomeasurement,
bioinformatics, biologically based and
health-information technologies, rising health
care costs can be reigned in and quality can be
improved.
"The
outcome of this conference will benefit patients
and society by improving the quality and
convenience of care, managing health care costs
and increasing access to affordable and
effective health care throughout the world,"
Biotechnology Council Chair Dick Doyle said.
The
all-day conference will bring together key
government, industry, academic and research
leaders and patient advocates. This will help
policy makers and corporate leaders understand
where technology investments should be made to
enhance health care quality, wellness and
disease prevention, while minimizing cost. Dr.
Jerry Grossman, senior Fellow and director of
the Harvard/Kennedy School Health Care Delivery
Policy Program and chairman emeritus of New
England Medical Center, is the honorary chair.
"Because of the complexity and scope of the
issue, the conference requires decision makers,
researchers, engineers and providers from many
traditional disciplines to collaborate and
tackle the challenges together," Doyle said.
For
more information and to register, see
www.itl.nist.gov/Healthcare/conf/index.htm.
The
Biotechnology Council, NIST and IEEE-USA are
cosponsoring the event. The Biotechnology
Council is composed of many professional
societies, including: the Society for Biological
Engineering; the Biomedical Engineering Society;
the American Society of Mechanical Engineers,
the Healthcare Information Management Systems
Society; and the Institute of Electrical and
Electronics Engineers. These societies have a
total membership of nearly 750,000.
Cosponsor URLs: Biotechnology Council (http://ewh.ieee.org/tc/biotech/);
NIST (www.nist.gov/);
IEEE-USA (www.ieeeusa.org).
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