"This report is all about people and using computers to connect them and their healthcare information. It is a report about how we get consumers and clinicians to use these tools, how we pay for them, and what we want the computers to do. But computers are only a tool, a means to an end. We have focused this report on computers because they seem to be the best tool--and maybe the only tool--that will allow the nation to change the way healthcare works... This report articulates a vision of an information-connected healthcare system, where consumers' privacy is protected and their convenience facilitated, where doctors and nurses have the information they need to efficiently deliver safe and effective care, where our public health and homeland security can be protected while still guarding each individual's privacy. The report recommends specific actions and broader policy objectives, all with the goal of allowing healthcare to effectively use computers and information technology. If followed, the Commission's recommendations will accelerate healthcare's transformation." [From Foreword].