Efforts to increase federal government support for healthcare IT initiatives such as the National Healthcare Information Infrastructure have won a major ally in Washington, D.C. According to executive director William Novelli, the AARP – perhaps the most influential interest group in America – supports the creation of the NHII and will advocate on behalf of it in the coming months.

"The idea of a national healthcare information infrastructure is both exciting and energizing," Novelli said last month at a two-day conference on emerging healthcare technologies. "Millions of Americans haven't benefited from this nation's wealth of technology because it hasn't been applied to medicine."

In addition to the NHII, Novelli also said his 35-million member organization supports mandatory electronic prescribing rules and federal efforts to increase adoption of computerized practitioner order entry (CPOE) and electronic health records.

"Just as we built the intercontinental railroad using the same gauge track, we have to build a national healthcare information infrastructure using common standards," he said. "We are prepared to advocate for that."

Novelli used his own father as an example of the need for a nationwide system. "He's accumulated two sets of doctors – one set down in Florida and one set in Pittsburgh," Novelli said. Without an easy way to transfer records, the doctors are essentially working without the most up-to-date information. However, Novelli also noted that whipping up enthusiasm for the NHII would not be an easy task.

"It's not salient," Novelli told Healthcare IT News. "My father, your father – they don't know anything about the NHII. This is infrastructure, the stuff behind the curtain. But that doesn't make it unimportant."

He added, "This ought to be part of any presidential debate."

The government isn't the only object of the AARP's powerful lobby. Novelli said he would seek to rally AARP members to pressure physicians to move healthcare out of the office and back into the home via new remote technologies. "We have to convince them that home is an appropriate location to provide care… Many of us can remember the house call – IT can make it happen again."