WASHINGTON – Panelists at a Thursday hearing on healthcare funding in an economic stimulus package agreed that IT won't be the silver bullet that everyone hopes for, but could be an effective tool if used properly.

Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Maryland) called a hearing to explore what policy measures, if any, should be included with healthcare IT funding as part of the economic stimulus package.

Mikulski admitted she has been skeptical about handing over immediate healthcare IT funding, for fear of acting in haste and producing a "techno-boondogle."

However, she said, she supports President-elect Barack Obama's commitment to healthcare IT as part of an economic stimulus package and healthcare reform plan. She held the hearing to allow for debate in advance of the vote on a stimulus bill, now being negotiated in Congress.

The way things are passed, she said, is with polite debate. Hearings are included in that process.

Panelists, which included representatives of private industry, government oversight agencies and non-profits, unanimously said that healthcare IT is merely a tool that, if used properly, can reduce healthcare costs and save lives.

Without the ability to study the data and measure performance, healthcare IT's potential will be wasted, they said. Most panelists encouraged incentives to providers who use healthcare IT data to provide better care, not just incentives for adopting HIT.

Jack Cochran, MD, executive director of the Oakland, Calif.-based Permanente Federation, which represents the national interests of Kaiser Permanente's eight medical groups, said implementing the technology is the first step.

"It is much harder to translate the data. It's not just about digitizing the technology," he said. "You have to use it to give better care. For that you need physician buy-in and leadership."

The second theme expressed by panelists was concern about privacy. Physicians and patients will not support the transition unless privacy is ensured, they said.

Peter Neupert, vice president of Microsoft Health Solutions, endorsed a solution that puts the patient as the main custodian of his or her health data. He said healthcare data stored by Microsoft HealthVault - or some other data storage provider - can ensure that privacy is maintained and the patient can chose where to allow access to that data.

Neupert said advancing healthcare IT need not be difficult at first. "We already have the data needed to get going," he said. Lab work, images and electronic prescriptions provide a good place to start.

Valerie Melvin, Director of Information Technology at the Government Accounting Office, recommended federal requirements to measure progress on healthcare IT advancement.

USDA unveils rules to speed tracking of tainted meat

The government is unveiling new provisions today to keep potentially deadly E. coli from infiltrating summer barbecues and other outings when folks sink their teeth into meat.

The updated rules by the U.S. Department of Agriculture allow inspectors to begin looking for meat contaminated with E. coli O157:H7 as soon as early testing shows a potential problem. The policy is designed to speed up the USDA's ability to track down contaminated hamburger and ground beef � and contain them.

Under the new policy, the USDA will act quicker after the first signs of a potentially deadly spread. The agency previously did not begin investigating possible contaminated meat until several tests were completed, often taking days.

The policy change "buys us 24 to 48 hours in terms of finding the sources," says USDA Under Secretary for Food Safety Elisabeth Hagen.

E. coli O157:H7 is the most commonly identified strain of E. coli. It also causes the most severe cases of illness, says Caroline Smith DeWaal, food safety director at The Center For Science in the Public Interest, a consumer advocacy group.

The ability to quickly track back to the source of contamination "is essential for minimizing the number of illnesses linked to an E. coli outbreak," DeWaal said.

Most people recover from an E. coli infection within five to seven days, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But there are instances in which exposure can be deadly. For instance, in 1993 four children died and hundreds of people got ill after eating E.-coli-tainted beef at Jack in the Box restaurants.

The new provisions are part of the USDA's emphasis on "using the data we and industry have in order to get in front of the problems that can harm consumers," Hagen said. "If we get a red flag from a test result, there are all kind of opportunities for us to help prevent harm."

Responding more swiftly to potentially contaminated meat is one part of new approaches by the USDA. Other efforts include an early reporting system that requires companies to notify the USDA's within 24 hours if potentially harmful meat or poultry has been shipped, and adding six new E. coli strains to a government watch list.

The CDC says the six strains sickened 451 people in 2010, hospitalized 69 and killed one.