eHealth Initiative CEO Jennifer Covich discusses Regional Extension Centers

[audio http://website.guild.im/williams/wp-content/uploads/sites/17/2010/10/covich3.mp3]
Regional Extension Centers (RECs) are charged with helping physicians achieve "meaningful use" of electronic health records in time to receive federal incentives under ARRA. Recently the eHealth Initiative and MedPlus (the health IT subsidiary of Quest Diagnostics) released a benchmarking survey to provide a snapshot of the progress the RECs are making in their first few months of operation.In this podcast interview, eHealth Initiative CEO Jennifer Covich Bordenick explains what RECs are and shares survey findings about their progress to-date, how RECs expect to sustain their operations after federal funding dries up, how RECs are working with other entities such as health information exchanges and the Health IT Resource Center, and what benefits patients can expect.The survey results are available here.