What can the US government do to best enable the use of new health information technologies?
Funding
Eat your
own dog food
SBIR-H & SBIR-E
A question presented by Aneesh Chopra on Quora
Conclusion
This is a Golden Opportunity for Health Care innovation.  demand (for solutions) far exceeds the supply.
We all have a role to play.
Allow government to BOTH fund and then purchase the innovative technology as a first customer.
Small Business Innovation Research funding specifically earmarked  for HIT and EDU innovation
Use large settlements to fund healthcare innovation via teams of incubators/accelerators not individual companies...
zoom in, ant add details to these Frames
Support those in the Trenches
This would include financial and political support to the organizations that took part in the "Startup Pavilion" at the recent
Consult the "Experts"
Create an SBIR-H
Fast-track
Use a streamlined SBIR process to incubate teams of developers
The point is NOT to fund the innovation itself -
The point  is to fund TEAMS to begin to work

See Rock Health and Healthbox experience...
This Prezi was created to stimulate further discussion on this important topic
http://www.quora.com/Medicine-and-Healthcare/In-the-U-S-healthcare-system-what-can-the-government-do-to-best-enable-the-use-of-new-health-information-technologies
Aneesh Chopra is Assistant to the President for Technology.
http://www.quora.com/Aneesh-Chopra-1
I've adapted and edited the EXCELLENT comments of Dan Munro to create this document
Dan is the
Founder / CEO
of iPatient
http://www.ipatient.com/
http://ipatient.posterous.com/
http://www.quora.com/Dan-Munro
Dan's original comments can be found here:
http://www.quora.com/Medicine-and-Healthcare/In-the-U-S-healthcare-system-what-can-the-government-do-to-best-enable-the-use-of-new-health-information-technologies/answer/Dan-Munro
Fred Wilson and Mark Suster
write influential blogs in the start-up ecosystem
Both have expressed interest healthcare startups...
http://www.avc.com/
http://www.bothsidesofthetable.com/