Alan Dove, PhD

August has traditionally been a sleepy month for government regulatory agencies, but this year, Washington's usual summer torpor was interrupted by a rush of new initiatives, as more than three-quarters of a trillion dollars from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act surged into a mind- boggling range of projects.

Financial help for physicians who are willing to implement, test, and help optimize health IT systems.

Hospitals rush to get the latest multi-Tesla MRI machines, physicians eagerly prescribe the latest biotechnology-derived medicines, and medical laboratories happily deploy cutting-edge genomic tests on a daily basis.