The Grill: Zoë Baird

Computerworld - As president of the Markle Foundation, Zoë Baird helps drive change in health care and national security through the use of information technology, bringing together key people in the private and public sectors. Her career has prepared her for the rigors of public policy work; she has served as a lawyer in the U.S. Department of Justice and the White House, and in the private sector at General Electric and Aetna.

What are some basic goals of the foundation? When was it founded and why? Markle was founded in 1927, with a general philanthropic mission "to serve the public good." After a long period of running a program in academic medicine, the foundation turned its attention in 1969 to new media -- particularly television and its role in society as a mass communications medium.

When I became president in 1998, it was a natural extension of Markle's prior work in various communications media for us to focus on the emergence of the Internet and information technology and its potential to address previously intractable public problems.

We aim for sectoral change rather than projects, and today we work primarily in health and national security. These sectors can be vastly improved by putting the best information in the hands of decision-makers when they need it. We collaborate with some of the nation's leaders and experts in the areas of IT, health, national security, civil liberties and business to develop strategies for the use of IT to transform these sectors.

Let's talk about the health program first. What is its focus? Markle's work focuses on the idea that emerging information and communications technologies can improve people's lives.

In the health arena, Markle has been working to accelerate the use of information technology by consumers and the health system that supports them to improve health and health care.

Health has lagged behind other sectors in taking advantage of the Internet and information tools. We know that there are great benefits to modernizing the way health information is collected, shared and analyzed. We can avoid medical errors, use the best treatment methods more widely, eliminate duplicative costs, and much more -- if we use IT in health as we do in other sectors.

Markle's Connecting for Health initiative is a public-private collaborative established in 2002 that brings together a diverse group of health, policy and technology leaders. Over the years, well over 100 organizations have participated in this collaborative, representing a diversity of interests, including those of consumer groups, clinicians, hospitals, government entities, privacy advocates, technology experts and business.