Federal Health and Technology Leaders on Open Standards Successes; Encouraging Health IT Entrepreneurs at HIMSS ’11 Venture Fair

To frame the conversation, Chopra shared examples of recent funding for programs like the national wireless initiative, a $3 billion innovation fund that would spur basic R&D for security and reliability engineering so “wireless communication can be fully leveraged in our healthcare ecosystem.” Chopra said $100 million of that fund is earmarked for healthcare application innovation.

Details were also shared about the Startup America Partnership, an alliance of US entrepreneurs, corporations, foundations, and other private sector leaders working to increase success rates for high-growth enterprises in the U.S. The program was created to support research which shows job growth in the United States is driven entirely by startups.

During the panel session, as well as at many other points during the conference, Chopra outlined the administration’s three-point approach to innovation in Health IT.