Oregon Public Broadcasting

The speaker of the U.S. House was in Oregon  Tuesday to talk about ways the nation’s health care information can be put on computers safely. As Kristian Foden-Vencil reports, she was impressed with the work happening here.

Many doctors already put your health records on a computer. The problem comes when you want to take the information and share it with another doctor -- who isn’t on the same system.

House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, and others want to develop a nationwide computer format, to allow all records be shared. She talked with doctors, HMO representatives and entrepreneurs at OHSU for about an hour.

Nancy Pelosi: “This has been an initiative of a couple of years and I can think of no day in all of that period of time that has been more inspiring or more encouraging than what I heard here today.”

About half of all physicians in Oregon take your information during a doctor’s visit and put it on a computer. That compares to only about 25 percent nationwide.