Provisions in the The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of
2009, the economic stimulus package signed by President Obama Feb. 17,
include 19.2 billion dollars in incentive funds for physicians to
abandon piecemeal paper-based health records for an electronic systems
that will allow for greater efficiency and more indepth data collection
for the diagnosis and treatment of patients.

Patients will be able to access their standardized personal medical
records from the privacy of their home, adding transparency to an often
confusing, complex information world.

Physicians can then utilize the expanded information, now free of
the institutional jargon unique to each region and medical specialty,
to both provide more personalized care on an individual basis as well
as conduct collective medical research.

Just think of the benefits to cancer research, diagnosis and
treatment alone. Obama certainly did - he pumped billions of dollars
into the program and set timelines requiring its adoption.

The lessons learned in this ambitious ‘Health 2.0′ innovation be
applied to another public concern that, despite great efforts in voter
empowerment and education, still lacks focus, transparency and clarity
- that of the relationship between the constituent and the elected
representative.

If the most recent election was any indicator, both voters and
elected officials, or those who striving to become one, are capable of
using Social Media and information technology to broadcast their
message.

Voters of all ages engaged in online and mobile networks to bring
their voice to local and national campaigns, empowering themselves
collectively through grassroots organization. Candidates distributed
more information than has been made available before to voters before
through not only traditional means, but YouTube, Twitter, Facebook,
blogs and podcasts.

New Media became king, queen and court jester of American politics -
though to quote Joe Pesci in the film Casino, “Nobody knew all the
details, but it should’a been perfect…. and in the end we @#$ed it all
up.”

Its not that the techie, the grassroots, the government 2.0, the me,
the you and them, the whatever you want to call it communities didn’t
have an entrance strategy for getting a seat at the table, or an exit
strategy for that matter - its that there was no viable strategy to
hold the seat at the table.

In political peacetime - in between elections - the seat at the
table requires meaningful exchanges of information between constituents
and elected officials. Citizens can flex their muscles collectively or
individually all they want, but that may not influence the 24-year old
Legislative Assistant who works 70 hours a week, makes 35k a year, and
handles all healthcare, defense, or economic issues for your
representative.

We must reconsider shifting focus from improving external
communication strategies between voters and elected leaders and making
the process internal - and using an Electronic Health Record model for
discussion can be one way to do that.

Imagine you are a staffer in your member of Congress’ office. Your
boss - the Congressperson/Governor/”The Football” wants you to provide
a report on an economic recovery bill - and due to the legislative
schedule and other factors, you have an hour to compile it. The more
information you can provide, solid numbers and facts, the more
legitimate your argument.

Your sources: You can sort through phone messages from eager callers
muddled with others reciting commentary they heard on The O’ Reilly
Factor mixed in with obscene calls from others who have nothing better
to do. You can delve in to information provided by the new spat of
grassroots organizations, one of the most well-known which has an
equally well-known reputation for providing as much flawed information
as it does thinly veiled threats in the name of anyone who provided
their email and address to receive a free sticker.

Or there’s the neatly arranged, concisely presented information
packet provided by the lobbyists - with the facts and language you
need, because many lobbyists were the 24-year old Legislative Assistant
once.

Decision made.

In order to gain real, sustainable influence, voters must provide
legislators the vital information they need in a format that is equally
resourceful for the decision-makers to use. As a former Hill staffer, I
speak from experience.

Just like how an Electronic Health Record standardizes personalized
data for individual and collective use by physicians from their home
towns to the top medical research facilities in the country,
constituents need a portal that allows them to identify: their top
issues in importance; factors in their opinion on the issues; what
sources or experiences they use to form those opinions and more.

The result would be taking the constituents already engaged in
broadcasting their message, and focusing the message into a platform
that would make the information actually useful to the decision-makers
they are trying to reach.

In order to make this idea work, however, the process would start
with interviewing Congressional and Gubernatorial staffs, and asking
them how can information be most effectively communicated to them -
which analytics do they need to make informed decisions. Since most
people reading this post will use analytics themselves, it should come
as no surprise to you that political staffs use the same.

It could be Microsoft Empowerment. Or Google Citizen.

Once the voice of the constituents is focused into a format useful
to the decision-makers, the reliance on lobbyists and third party
organizations for information can be reduced, and communications
between the two groups will shift from external to an internal
relationship - and that’s what Government 2.0 is supposed to be all
about: transparency, efficiency and effectiveness.

If you are or were a Congressional or Gubernatorial staffer, would
this direct, categorical data be helpful in your operations? And for
the rest, would you use such a platform if it had the necessary privacy
safeguards and customization options that would allow you to
communicate your opinions on the matters most important to you? I hope
you leave us a comment for discussion of this concept, and propose
alternatives.