There is an increasing sense of urgency around efforts to transform our health care delivery system---to find ways to make health care more affordable without jeopardizing quality and patient safety. Nearly all health care and public policy leaders now believe that health information technology will be one of the most important tools we have available to moderate the growth of health spending---and simultaneously improve patient safety and quality of care. This transformation will require substantial improvements to Maine's - and the nation's - electronic information infrastructure.

This is one in a series of policy briefs written for the 2009 Policy Leaders Academy Health Care Forum.