As Congress takes up the subject of health information technology, it must take great care to enable accelerated progress rather than sending the process back to the starting line.

My vision of health information technology in the United States is a world where medical information can be privacy-protected and managed in a way that produces better quality, lower costs, fewer medical mistakes and less hassle for everybody. Building such a system requires that clinics, hospitals, pharmacies, labs and patients have systems that speak the same language — that are “interoperable.”

Getting health information systems in various parts of the healthcare system to work together requires the adoption of common technical standards. I’ve often compared the problem to the building of railroads. Before the railroads of the East, West, North and South could be interoperable, they all had to agree on one standard track size. A similar process is required with health IT, except that the degree of difficulty is much harder than just agreeing on a track size.

There are more than 200 developers of electronic medical record systems in the United States.

Until three years ago, there was no process for harmonizing and coordinating the standards they used. To remedy this problem, we formed the American Health Information Community (AHIC). It has succeeded, and as time passes we are seeing an accelerating stream of solid and widely accepted health IT standards emerge.

People who buy systems need to know they are making an investment that will connect them with the rest of the medical world. Today, they can buy with confidence.

The Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology gives systems a rigorous testing to demonstrate interoperability. Those systems that pass the test are given CCHIT certification. When doctors buy systems with that seal, they know that they are on a pathway to interoperability. This has given many doctors the confidence to buy who were waiting before.

We have seen more progress toward interoperability in the past three years than in the previous two decades. This is because government agencies, the medical family, the insurance industry and the health IT sector are all working together collaboratively.  This type of collaboration is hard and requires great effort, but it is working, and its momentum is increasing.

As Congress begins to write a health IT bill, it is critical that it be crafted in a way that does not interrupt this success by imposing government controls. Government has to be at the table as a full participant, but if the bill prescribes the way these standards are to be set, or puts in place a politically controlled process that picks winners and losers, it will devastate a healthy but fragile process and lose three years of maturity and momentum.

I would offer three principles to members of Congress in dealing with legislation:

First, let’s protect the flexibility of those who are working to invent new tools, and let’s not undermine the work on AHIC that is already underway. Writing legislation to bias the process in one direction or another will constrict innovation and slow the process.

Second, let’s not try to solve all the privacy challenges of the 21st century in a health IT bill. We have to be careful to avoid penalizing early adoption.

Third, let’s respect the need for legitimate healthcare communications. We have to find the balance here. It is in the patient’s best interest for doctors and the patient to have information.

The most important thing government can do is adopt the standards ourselves. The adoption of standards by Medicare, the Veterans Administration, the Department of Defense, and Indian Health, is critical.

We’re making progress on health information technology. Let’s make sure that any legislation accelerates the progress already under way, rather than chilling it with requirements that the government dictate one-size-fits-all answers.

Leavitt is secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services.