View from Washington [News Briefing]

IT IS ONCE more being said that lumbering federal regulators in Washington are putting the US on the wrong side of innovation. But the position may not be that simple. Perhaps we should look at things in a broader context, and, with luck, learn from it. A recent example was electronic healthcare systems. The Food and Drug Administration seemed to take an age to consider the difference between an e-health device that was merely ´advisory´ and one that was ´medically diagnostic´ (the latter requiring more rigorous regulation). In the absence of the ´clear guidance´ they needed, America´s e-health innovators upped sticks. Many are today running pilot projects in ´more progressive´ regimes like China. Now, let´s flash forward. The latest Washington techno-wobble involves unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) - also known, especially if we want to give things a pejorative nudge, as ´drones´. Either way, the feds are again supposedly causing big dollars to be left on the table.