“If we would find ways to have an overall common approach in healthcare we could achieve much more,” according to Alexander von Gabain, an Austrian biopharma entrepreneur and chairman-elect of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology. “We have to find ways of getting healthcare costs down – by working together, expanding best practice, and cooperating intellectually and financially,” agreed Bart Gordon, former chairman of the US House Committee on Science and Technology and now a partner at Washington law firm K&L Gates.
The call for transatlantic cooperation in healthcare came at a meeting on Capitol Hill that was organized by Science|Business and hosted by Rep. Phil Gingrey, a Georgia Republican who is also a doctor. Gingrey called for greater collaboration on electronic medical records. He praised a $19 billion US e-health effort, included in the 2009 economic-stimulus bill, and suggested it add a global dimension. “If you go into an emergency room where you don’t speak the language, or maybe you can’t even talk because of injuries, for the doctors to be able to take your card and swipe it” to get an instant medical history – “this can be very important. It should be there globally.”
