Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich kicked off the general session of the Consumer Health World conference in Arlington, Va. yesterday with a rousing message.

"I believe in large-scale change because I've lived it," Gingrich, founder of the Center for Health Transformation, told attendees. "We need a change [to fix our] broken health care system."

He called for an increase in consumer and federal involvement and a commitment to preventative health to heal the country's rapidly burgeoning health care crisis.

Gingrich advised policymakers and stakeholders to embrace health information technology and wireless access. Secondly, transparency is needed in the U.S. health care marketplace, he urged. People should be able to make their own choices about health care in a manner that is convenient.

"The gap between the health care system we could have and the system we do have is widening every day," Gingrich said. Consumers also need to take control of their own actions. "It's going to be an expensive, painful process, but a necessary one. After all, he said, "It is impossible to sustain [chronic conditions] if [consumers are] irresponsible with their own health.

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