Paper Kills

I am always impressed by the ability of US politicians to coin catchphrases. While European governments try to sell their e-health initiatives with lengthy arguments about cost containment and service convenience, Newt Gingrich simply states: "Paper Kills" - Paper prescriptions kill. Paper records kill." He even manages to bring the notion of terror into play: "And if there's a public health emergency, paper will kill a lot of people."
Gingrich referred to the US e-health ‘Framework for Strategic Action’ that was released today by the United States Department of Health and Human Services. Besides the open question, if a digitized health care system will actually benefit the patients or someone else instead, e-health programs seem to become a major contributor for establishing government approved PK-Infrastructures for the Internet. Within the health care complex privacy issues and security needs are obvious and highly agreeable to all parties involved. Electronic Prescriptions, electronic health records, clinical interconnectiveness etc., all meet in the need for authentification and encryption of data being transfered over the Internet. This development presumably will have a profound impact onto the Internet and on the ongoing struggle for authentification infrastructures.
Last not least I think that this would also be the chance for a more fundamental reform of US Health Care System, that could lead to a framework decoupling health care access from income, giving everybody access to medical assistance when needed.