Dr. Rodney Hornblake of Boston wrote us an email wondering if the Obama administration’s much- ballyhooed plans for Health IT investment may actually be slowing technology investment over the short term. 

"My partners and I have put on hold our planned implementation of e Clinical Works.  Scheduled for February the project is now on hold. The reason?  Obama’s emphasis on healthcare IT as an “economic stimulus”.  If we invest now we are likely to miss tax credits or other incentives."

Michael Millenson had this to say in response to David Kibbe’s posting this morning on last Friday’s Health IT report from the National Research Council of the National Academies. 

"The tunnel vision of the IT community is unintentionally shown by the comparison of the IT gap to the "quality chasm." That demonstrates a fundamental misunderstanding. The quality chasm is a gap between the care we have and the care we should have. Health IT, by contrast, is a critical tool in closing that gap — but it is only that, a tool. Just like telephones or, for that matter, file folders."

Rick was among the readers who commented on Dr. Val’s posting on Sanjay Gupta’s potential nomnination as Surgeon General …

"Dr. Gupta, while serving as a war correspondent for CNN in Iraq,
performed five emergency brain surgeries in the field. I don’t know if
that counts for military experience, but anyone at the Pentagon who
overlooks it ought to be reminded — though I expect Dr. Gupta would be
too polite to do so.

Frankly, it sounds like Dr. Jones’ anonymous source has a case of
the sour grapes, resentful at getting passed over by someone with more
star power, or at least, is close to people who are."

Meanwhile, skeptic writes:

"The director of public health for Los Angeles County (Jonathan Fielding
MD) or his New York City counterpart would be far better candidates for
Surgeon General. Both have experience running large organizations and
noteworthy accomplishments, along with excellent PR skills."