Government health IT gets a few more advisers

It takes a village to raise a child, a phrase Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton once used in her best-selling book. Now it will take two committees to advice the government on health information technology. The Department of Health and Human Services is setting up two new committees to offer the government advice on health information technology.

According to a notice in the Federal Register, as health reform becomes more prominent for the Obama administration, a Health IT policy committee will be created to recommend a nationwide infrastructure for the e-Health records. The committee would have 20 members, combining appointees from the private sector and others appointed by HHS and Congress.

A second committee, the Health IT Standards Committee with 30 members, would make recommendations about data and technology standards.

So my question is, how many cooks do you need in the kitchen? While the number of advisers may seem excessive, I believe that in this case, the best brain power is necessary to come up with a health plan that cannot be beaten down. That being said, this sounds to me like it's going to result in layers upon layers of bureaucracy, with no end in site.

For more on plans to develop e-Health records:
- check out this federalnewsradio.com article