Institute For The Future

MIT and Harvard Leaders Make Policy Recommendations for the Next US President

Technology Review is running an article today

comprised of three letters to the next US president, suggesting policy

initiatives that they think are needed to address future challenges.

First up is Ernest J. Moniz, Director of The MIT Energy Initiative,

who argues for plans to develop a "portfolio of proven low-carbon

technologies". His specific proposals include:

 

1. Implementing a cap-and-trade emissions pricing system

2. A modest tax on energy to low-carbon generating capacity (nuclear and renewables) as well as carbon sequestration

3. A policy coordinating mechanism with broader reach than the Department of Energy. (Sounds like a job for Al Gore?)

4. Commit to upgrading the grid and retrofitting buildings with low-carbon technologies in the next decade.

 

John D. Halamka,CIO of Harvard Medical School, zeros in on the need to finally bring the US up to speed on Electronic Health Records, where we trail other developed nations. his specific proposals:

 

(1) Provide incentives through Medicare for the adoption and use of EHRs. Target these incentives so that cost savings are shared with clinicians.

 

 

(2) Encourage insurers to provide incentives for hospitals to adopt CPOE (computerized physician order entry). This technology, which lets physicians communicate treatment instructions electronically, is the most important tool hospitals can introduce to improve their safety, quality, and efficiency of care.

 

 

(3) Continue to provide federal funding for technology and policies that encourage interoperability between health-care providers.

 

Finally, Charles M. Vest, who was president of MIT during my days there at the end of the 1990s, and is now president of the National Academy of Engineering, focuses on education:

 

(1) Use your bully pulpit to establish a public vision of an America that will lead and prosper in the 21st century through knowledge and innovation.

 

 

(2) Appoint a science and technology advisor before your inauguration and include him or her at the highest tables of counsel and decision making, just like the national security advisor.

 

 

(3) Make full funding of the America Competes Act a nonnegotiable first-term priority.

 

 

(4) Establish a bold national initiative engaging the private sector, academia, and government to meet our energy challenge and mitigate the advance of global climate disruption.

 

 

(5) Restore strong basic-research budgets to the Department of Defense and increase the National Institutes of Health's budget in excess of inflation.

 

 

(6) Work with Congress to eliminate academic earmarking.

 

The full letter are available here: "Dear Mr. President"