The eHealth Initiative has announced that Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt will deliver the keynote address Sept. 26 on the subject of the vital role national leadership has cast for health information technology (HIT) in the drive to improve healthcare quality, safety, and effectiveness at the Third Annual HIT Summit. The Summit is co-sponsored by the eHealth Initiative and Bridges to Excellence. The event will be held Sept. 25-27 at the Renaissance Hotel in Washington, D.C.

The Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise (IHE) initiative and the Electronic Health Record has extended the application deadline for the 2007 Interoperability Showcase to Sept. 25 for the 2007 HIMSS Interoperability Showcase (Feb. 25 to March 1, 2007) in New Orleans. The deadline extension allows participating vendors to attend the educational and Q&A webinars with leading IHE experts and authors of the different IHE profiles that will be part of the showcase. More information: http://www.interoperabilityshowcase.org/education.asp.