The Obama administration wants federal health IT funding to jump-start innovation in health IT, not just support the installation of existing technologies. "It is more important for us to create the market conditions that would inspire game-changing" innovations, Aneesh Chopra, the federal government's chief technology officer, said at the third-annual Health 2.0 Conference in San Francisco last week, the New York Times reports.

Chopra specifically mentioned the need for technologies that would help hospitals track the progress of patients following discharge. He said that the administration would push for policy changes that remove the economic incentive to see more patients, a condition that results in many return visits to the emergency room. Chopra also invited software developers to get in touch with him about access to various federal data sets that could help power the next generation of health IT applications.

To learn more about Chopra's views:
- check out this New York Times "Bits" blog post

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