United States leaders and health care experts concluded Tuesday for real health reform to occur, Americans must better the infrastructure of health technology, focusing on disease prevention and providing all citizens affordable, quality care.

The University of Wisconsin Law School, in coalition with Tommy Thompson, former Wisconsin governor and U.S. secretary of Health and Human Services, hosted the summit at the Edgewater Hotel between leaders in labor, health care business, government and other sectors about American health care for the 21st century.

The summit, sponsored by America’s Agenda Health Care Education Fund, allowed political and private sector leaders to articulate their viewpoints as a consensus emerges on the necessary elements of a health care system for modern Americans.

Technology discussed included interoperable electronic records, e-prescribing, physician order entry systems and clinical decision support systems, which can reduce errors, improve coordination and decrease administrative inefficiencies.

Most prominently, members discussed an information database system designed to link doctors and patients in different hospitals, labs and clinics across the United States to the same interactive network.

“We have to have systems that talk across multiple places,” CEO of Gunderson Lutheran Health System Jeffrey Thompson said. “It has the great opportunity to engage the patients because they can see their X-rays, data and information. They can then be a part of their care, and the care can end up being centered on the patient.”

Members of both the Democratic and Republican parties have reached a consensus on the necessity of such an electronic system, agreeing it is a fundamental building block of any health care business.

Additionally, Tommy Thompson said health care must be more accessible to all Americans.

“You got to be able to come up with a system where the uninsured and the underinsured are able to have access to the system and you have to come up with an equitable way to do it,” he said.

Dick Gephardt, former majority leader of the U.S. House of Representatives, said in order for decisions to get made, leaders need to bring back habits of partisanship to get members of Congress interested in solving problems and not just winning the next election.

“Failure is not an option,” said U.S. Rep. Ron Kind, D-La Crosse. “We are on an unsustainable glide to bankrupting the nation if we don’t start making some needed health care reform. It is a personal issue to each and every one of us who need health care, and that’s why you have so many desperate voices at the same table, and I’m hopeful we can get it done this year.”

The summit was the third in a yearlong national series of 10 that have also been held at the University of Miami and Washington University in St. Louis. In all, the series will engage more than 100 of America’s leaders.