Michael Leavitt, Secretary of Health and Human Services http://www.whitehouse.gov/government/leavitt-bio.html visited the Interoperability Showcase at the HIMSS Conference in Orlando Florida last week.  He spent 45 minutes taking the Showcase tour, in which healthcare vendors simulate a scenario of a patient moving through the healthcare system, accessing his electronic medical information at various points of care.  The Interoperability Showcase is sponsored by Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise (IHE).

In closing, Secretary Leavitt asked IHE to contemplate a world in which the patient owns (the intellectual property of) his medical data.  He praised IHE for their important work in pioneering standards by which healthcare providers and patients can electronically and securely share critical patient information.