August 2009

The smart grid is positioned as holding the answers to a lot of problems inherent in the complex and unwieldy beast that is the nation's electric grid. It promises to enhance reliability, optimize energy delivery through granular control, give power to the consumer and minimize the grid's huge environmental impact. The answers the smart grid provides present a compelling opportunity, but the movement brings up a lot of new questions too - especially for the telecom service providers looking for a piece of the action. Before telcos can define their role in smart grids, they must first define what exactly a smart grid is. And, like most technologies, ask 10 people and expect 10 different answers.

Vice President Joe Biden announced the availability of grants worth nearly $1.2 billion to help hospitals and health care providers implement and use electronic health records. The grants will be funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) and will help health care providers qualify for new incentives that will be made available in 2010 to doctors and hospitals that meaningfully use electronic health records. The grants made available today include: 1) Grants totaling $598 million to establish approximately 70 Health Information Technology Regional Extension Centers, which will provide hospitals and clinicians with hands-on technical assistance in the selection, acquisition, implementation, and meaningful use of certified electronic health record systems. 2) Grants totaling $564 million to States and Qualified State Designated Entities (SDEs) to support the development of mechanisms for information sharing within an emerging nationwide system of networks. The Department of Health and Human Services will also provide additional assistance to health care providers through the Health Information Technology Research Center (HITRC). The HITRC will gather relevant information on effective practices from a wide variety of sources across the country and help the Regional Extension Centers collaborate with one another and with relevant stakeholders to identify and share best practices in EHR adoption, effective use, and provider support.

Public interest in health care reform shows no signs of slackening, with news about the debate continuing to top the public's news agenda. Fully 46% name health care as the story they followed more closely than any other last week - double the percentage who named the week's second most closely followed story (economy, 23%). Moreover, health care is far and away the story people say they have been talking about most with friends: 55% say this, compared with 20% who name the economy. The latest weekly News Interest Index survey, conducted August 14-17 among 1,003 adults by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, finds that as news coverage of the health care debate reached a new high, claims that reform legislation would create "death panels" registered widely with the public. Fully 86% say they have heard either a lot (41%) or a little (45%) about so-called death panels - "government organizations that will make decisions about who will and will not receive health services when they are critically ill."

The Justice Department is formally reviewing Microsoft's proposed online search and advertising agreement with Yahoo, according to sources familiar with the situation, in the first wave of opposition the deal will likely face from antitrust regulators and lawmakers. The review will also be a litmus test for how aggressive the newly appointed antitrust officials will be in regulating the online advertising industry, one of President Obama's biggest supporters. The Obama Administration has said it will increase scrutiny of anti-competitive practices in the technology sector. Consumer groups say the proposed pact could reduce competition and choice for consumers while increasing the data collected about their online behavior. Microsoft and Yahoo both process enormous amounts of information about users, and consolidating that data could lead to more in-depth tracking of online activities, privacy advocates say. "This will be a test to see whether the new Obama antitrust team has real teeth when it comes to regulating this industry," said Jeffrey Chester, founder of the Center for Digital Democracy. "If Yahoo is turning over its search business to Microsoft, it will no longer have an independent search arm," he said. "It will be a company that's incapable of competing. This is nothing more than a takeover by Microsoft." Privacy advocates have also raised questions about the deal with the European Union. The European Commission, the EU's executive arm that reviews joint ventures and mergers, has not yet said whether it will examine the deal.