Key Topic Guide Series - Interoperability & Electronic Health Records (EHR)
Regional Health Information Organizations (RHIOs) | Initiatives |
Tools | Standards | Privacy Issues in EHRs |
Personal Health Records | Government | Articles |
White Papers
MA Health Data Consortium
Active RHIO List (PDF)
The Consortium maintains an active RHIO List tracking RHIO formation across the US
HIMSS HIT Dashboard
www.hitdashboard.com
The HIT Dashboard tracks over 500 HIT projects including RHIOs
and other models of Health Information Exchange (HIE). The data
in it is free for public consumption and will be updated quarterly.
RHIO Wiki
www.rhiowiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Home_Page
RHIO Wiki, sponsored by the Center for Health Transformation, eHealth
Initiative, and CHIME, is an "open, online, real-time tool
for community leaders to collaborate on health information exchanges."
Massachusetts e-Health Collaborative
www.maehc.org
Connecting for Health
www.connectingforhealth.org/
Connecting for Health is a public-private collaborative designed
to address the barriers to development of an interconnected health
information infrastructure. The goal of the initiative is to gain
the ability to deliver medical information where and when it is
needed in a private and secure manner. This will lead to improvements
in the quality of care, reduction of medical errors, lower costs
and empowered patients.
Doctors' Office Quality - Information Technology (DOQ-IT)
www.doqit.org
DOQ-IT is a project that promotes the adoption of electronic health
record (EHR) systems and information technology (IT) in small-to-medium
sized physician offices. Initiated by The Centers for Medicare
and Medicaid Services (CMS), the project will be run by a Quality
Improvement Organization (QIO) in partnership with the American
Academy of Family Physicians' (AAFP) Center for Health Information
Technology. DOQ-IT advances with a vision of "enhancing
access to patient information, decision support, and reference
data, as well as improving patient-clinician communications." The
data collected by participating physicians will be aggregated and
ultimately will populate a set of healthcare quality measures.
The topics addressed by these measures are: coronary artery disease,
heart failure, diabetes, hypertension, osteoarthritis, and preventive
care.
National Alliance for Primary Care Informatics (NAPCI)
www.napci.org
Several organizations have collaborated to make news and helpful
information about the use of IT in primary care practices available
to practitioners (American Academy of Pediatrics, American College
of Physicians, American Academy of Family Physicians, American
Medical Informatics Association, American Nurses Association, National
Organization of Nurse Practitioner Faculties, North American Primary
Care Research Group, Society of General Internal Medicine, Society
of Teachers of Family Medicine).
Massachusetts Medical Society
Physician Practice Resources,
Information Technology
MMS has created or subscribed to seven tools to help Massachusetts
physicians navigate the process of choosing, testing, and implementing
an electronic health record. These include an EHR
Assessment Tool, a 10-question survey that measures a practice’s
technical and organizational readiness for electronic health records, KLAS
Ratings of EHR Vendors, which rates the four MMS-endorsed providers
of electronic health records on 14 different attributes, and the EHR “Sandbox”,
an online tool that allows users to gain hands-on
experience with an EHR tool before making the commitment to purchase
it. -- These tools are available only to Massachusetts Medical Society members.
Council for Affordable Quality in Healthcare (CAQH)
www.caqh.org
Committee on Operating Rules for Information Exchange (CORE)
caqh.org/benefits.html
"CAQH Initiative to Speed Physician Access to Patient Insurance
Coverage Data, Reduce Unnecessary Administrative Burden: Leading
Health Insurers, Providers, Vendors Commit to Follow CORE Rules
by March 2007" - press release -
September 14, 2006
DHHS Consolidated Health Informatics (CHI) Initiative
Health
Care and Vocabulary Standards for Use in Federal Health Information
Technology Systems
The Department of Health and Human Services has published a notice
in the December 23, 2005 Federal Register identifying the 20 messaging
and vocabulary standards adopted for use in Federal government
health information technology systems. The first set of 5 standards
was adopted on March 21, 2003. The second set of 15 standards was
adopted on May 6, 2004, thus completing the initial portfolio of
the Consolidated Health Informatics (CHI) initiative.
EHR Collaborative
www.ehrcollaborative.org/
The EHR Collaborative is a group of organizations representing
key stakeholders in healthcare, including practicing clinicians,
payers, purchasers, researchers, healthcare providers, IT suppliers,
information and technology managers, accrediting groups, public
health organizations, manufacturers, and public sector partners.
The Collaborative had held meetings, audio sessions and conference
calls to gather input for the creation of a universal, standard
electronic health record. The Collaborative passes this input along
to Health Level 7 which conducts voting on the proposed standard.
Health Level 7
Electronic Health Record Functional Model and Standard Home Page
- www.hl7.org/ehr/
The model EHR standard received first round approval in March 2004. This
standard passed a second round of voting in April. HL7 will
work through a reconciliation process now to grapple with outstanding
issues raising in the negative votes. View the model EHR
standard: www.hl7.org/ehr/documents/public/documents/FunctionsOutline.asp
Health Information Technology Standards Panel (HITSP)
www.ansi.org/standards_activities/standards_boards_panels/hisb/hitsp.aspx?menuid=3
Healthcare Information Technology Standards Panel serves as a
cooperative partnership between the public and private sectors
for the purpose of achieving a widely accepted and useful set of
standards specifically to enable and support widespread interoperability
among healthcare software applications. The Panel is sponsored
by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) in cooperation
with strategic partners such as the Healthcare Information and
Management Systems Society (HIMSS), the Advanced Technology Institute
(ATI) and Booz Allen Hamilton. Funding for the Panel is being provided
via the ONCHIT1 contract award from the U.S. Department of Health
and Human Services. -- also see article below
HIMSS Electronic Health Record Vendors' Association
http://www.himssehrva.org/ASP/index.asp
A trade association of electronic health record vendors, the primary
mission of the association is to provide a forum for working for
standards development, the EHR certification process, interoperability,
performance and quality measures, and other EHR issues.
Watson, Nigel, and John D. Halamka "For
and against: Patients should have to opt out of national electronic
care records", BMJ 2006;333:39-42 (July
1) , doi:10.1136/bmj.333.7557.39.
Requires subscription or single article may be purchased for
$4.00
Personal Health Records and
Personal Health Record Systems
A Report and Recommendations from the National Committee on Vital and Health Statistics
MyPHR
www.myphr.com
This web site was created by AHIMA as a "guie to understanding
and managing your personal health information."
Dossia
Read the Kaiser Networks Daily Report
for extensive links
Five large U.S. companies and one British companies have announced
their collaboration in creating an electronic health record databank. The
purpose of the databank is to provide a secure place for the employees
of these companies to gather their electronic health records, with
the hope that this will lead to cost savings for the companies
and improved health for employees. The companies cannot view
the health records of their own employees, and the employees must
give consent to providers for them to contribute to or gain access
to the databank.
National Committee on Vital and Health Statistics (NCVHS)
NCVHS is an 18-member statutory public advisory body to the Secretary
of the Department of Health and Human Services. In
June 2006, the Privacy and Confidentiality Subcommittee of the
NCVHS reported to Secretary Leavitt of HHS on "Privacy
and Confidentiality in the Nationwide Health Information Network."
The Executive Office of the President
State
of the Union: Affordable and Accessible Health Care
In Focus:
Strengthening Health Care
In January 2006, President Bush again mentioned the importance
of electronic health records in his State of the Union address
- "We will make wider use of electronic records and other
health information technology, to help control costs and reduce
dangerous medical errors."
Institute of Medicine (IOM)
books.nap.edu/catalog/5306.html
The Institute of Medicine (IOM) published "Computer-Based Patient
Record: An Essential Technology for Health Care."
Consolidated Health Informatics Initiative (CHI)
Press Release: www.hhs.gov/news/press/2003pres/20030321a.html
The Departments of Health and Human Services (HHS), Defense (DoD)
and Veterans Affairs (VA) announced in March 2003 that they will
adopt the first set of uniform standards for the electronic exchange
of clinical health information across federal government departments.
These standards will be deployed as part of the Consolidated Health
Informatics initiative (CHI), the health care component of President
Bush's eGov Initiatives, created under the President's Management
Agenda, to make it easier for citizens and businesses to interact
with the government, save taxpayer dollars and streamline citizen-to-government
transactions. It is hoped that adoption of these standards will
lead to industry-wide development and adoption of electronic medical
records systems. "It's important for the federal government to
lead by example by selecting and adopting these standards," HHS
Secretary Tommy G. Thompson said. The standards to be adopted are
those of Health Level 7 (HL7), National Council on Prescription
Drug Programs (NCDCP), the Institute of Electrical and Electronics
Engineers 1073 (IEEE1073), Digital Imaging Communications in Medicine
(DICOM), and Logical Observation Identifier Name Codes (LOINC).
Freudenheim, Milt and Robert Pear, "Health Hazard: Computers Spilling Your History"
New York Times, December 3, 2006
Brailer, David J., "Your Medical History, to Go"
New York Times, September 19, 2006
Conn, Joseph, "HITSP
creating working group with CCHIT",
Modern Healthcare, September 11, 2006
Ferris, Nancy, "HHS
team tackles genetics, EHR integration",
Government HealthIT, September 13, 2006
Garrido, Terhilda, Laura Jamieson, Yvonne Zhou, Andrew Wiesenthal,
Louise Liang, "Effect
of electronic health records in ambulatory care: retrospective,
serial, cross sectional study", BMJ 2005;330:581 (12 March).
Gillespie, Greg. "Systems
Integration: The Electronic Records Linchpin",
Health
Data Management, May 2005, pp. 34-44.
Kolata, Gina. "U.S.
Will Offer Doctors Free Electronic records System",
New York Times, July 21, 2005.
Lingle, Courtney, "Medical
records going digital: Eventually, patients might carry own information
on CDs",
The Coloradoan, March
21, 2005.
Parish, Linn, "INHS
records network interests White House",
The Journal
of Business (Spokane), November 24, 2005.
Rogoski, Richard R., "Look
Before You Leap: Small and mid-size physician practices can eradicate
EMR challenges with homework and planning.",
Health
Management Technology, May 2005, pp. 10-15.
"Wis.
Governor: Help Docs Automate",
HDMweek, February
11, 2005.
Avalare Health (funded by Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality)
Evolution
of State Health Information Exchange/ A Study of Vision, Strategy
and Progress, January 2006.
This page last updated December 20, 2006
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