Writing in a new op-ed, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius talks about how the expansion of electronic medical records and other Health IT investments are changing the health care industry.

Sebelius writes, "Over the last 30 years, we've watched information technology revolutionize industry after industry, dramatically improving the customer experience and driving down costs. … Now that government and stakeholders are coming together, we are finally poised to make the same transformation in health care."

Sebelius says that public-private partnerships are driving these Health IT innovations. On the public front, Health IT investments have been:

• Creating regional health IT extension centers to help health care providers select EHR systems;
• Offering training programs to strengthen the health IT work force; and
• Providing grants to states for health information exchange.

However, Sebelius writes, "the most promising sign for the future of our health care system is ... what [stakeholders are] already doing." She adds that "two of the nation's largest provider groups, Delaware's Christiana Care Health System and Partners HealthCare in Massachusetts, said that in the future they're going train and support providers who adopt electronic health records and avoid providers who don't make the switch to health IT."

Read more here and read the full Sebelius op-ed here.