IfG.CC - The Potsdam eGovernment Competence Center

Ambassador Charles Tsai of the Republic of China presented the 30 computers and network devices to the Government of Belize for the establishment of the Information Technology Training Centre during the opening ceremony at George Price Centre for Peace and Development in Belmopan on Thursday, October 20.

Because legislation encouraging the adoption of electronic health records has yet to pass in both Senate and the House, most health-care institutions don't bother to make the switch, instead relying on paper files. According to the results of a survey of 34,490 group practices published in the September/October 2005 issue of policy journal Health Affairs, 75 percent of all practices relied on paper medical records filed in cabinets; only 14 percent maintained electronic health records in relational databases. And 42 percent had no plans of implementing an electronic health record system in the next two years.

More than 70 percent of Americans are in support of a nationwide health-information exchange or network for doctors and patients, according to a recent survey by the Markle Foundation, a Washington, D.C.-based foundation that encourages the use of technology in the areas of health care and national security. But ensuring patient privacy and security remains the top priority for any such network to ultimately be accepted by consumers.

"Our use of information technology to improve consumer access to health information and make it available to doctors has lagged mainstream consumer IT use," says Zoe Baird, president of the Markle Foundation. "Consumers now believe that health IT can make their own medical information more useful for them and those helping with their health care."

Too often, government takes an after-the-fact approach to network security--confronting issues after a breach takes place. But by offering effective identification management solutions, VARs can help agencies to detect malicious intruders before they ever get inside.

During a panel discussion at an identity management conference hosted by the Information Technology Association of America (ITAA), Bill Crowell, security consultant and member of the Markle Foundation Task Force on National Security, described how he drove up to the hotel where the event took place with two Propane tanks sitting in plain view and obviously no one took much notice. "[My car] is still parked out front," he said. "For all the cameras, there aren't that many watching."

"The problem is we have a digital economy, but an analog government," Davis said during a morning keynote at an identity management conference hosted by the Information Technology Association of America (ITAA). "You think of government and you think of [incidents like Hurricane Katrina and] FEMA. There's a disconnect."