Washington, DC, Jul 28, 2006 - U.S. Congressman John Carter (TX-31) supported House passage of a bill that will help reduce medical errors and improve medical treatment and record-keeping. H.R. 4157, the Health Information Technology Promotion Act, promotes advanced health information technology and establishes a national interoperable health information technology system.

“This bill will help prevent medical errors by allowing for critical updates to our medical record-keeping system,” Congressman Carter said. “It is time that we use the technology available to update our medical information system to 21^st Century standards so patients can be better served. The implementation of transferable, electronic medical records and e-prescribing systems will also help to significantly reduce medical errors.”

The Institute of Medicine estimates that 1.5 million Americans become ill or are injured or killed each year because of medical errors. This bill seeks to address this problem by updating outdated diagnosis coding systems for the 21^st century; promoting cooperation between states and the federal government to increase the security of medical records; providing grants to promote the use of health information technology in small physician practices and for the uninsured; and providing for a national framework for the use of interoperable health information technology.