HIT Definitions Project Calls For Final Comments On Proposed Definitions

Main Category: IT / Internet / E-mail
Article Date: 25 Mar 2008 - 2:00 PDT

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As it nears the deadline to finalize definitions for five health information technology (HIT) terms, The National Alliance for Health Information Technology (Alliance,) with the guidance and management of BearingPoint Inc., is seeking further industry input on draft definitions.

To enable widespread participation in this project for U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Office of the National Coordinator, the Alliance is holding a second public comment period from March 24 to April 9 on the work completed so far in defining the five terms: electronic medical record (EMR), electronic health record (EHR), personal health record (PHR), health information exchange (HIE) and regional health information organization (RHIO).

"Now is the time to be heard and to provide input on the definitions," says Jane Horowitz, vice president and chief marketing officer for the Alliance, who is leading the project. "The final definitions will provide an important reference point for policy evaluation and standards development activities, and they will help explain health IT concepts in language that consumers can readily understand. We as an industry need to quickly reach clarity and certainty about these terms so we can move forward with the important business of improving healthcare through health IT."

Committed to creating consensus-based definitions, the project's Records Work Group and Network Work Group have already weighed and incorporated feedback received during two public forums and the first public comment period that ended March 3.

"Based on the first public comment period, the work group revised its HIE definition as the process of electronic health information exchange, not the governing function or entity," says Horowitz. "We're seeking comments on names and associated definitions for a sixth term to describe the entity that governs health information exchange beyond the confines of a specific regionally-based community."

Remarks may be submitted at http://www.definitions.nahit.org, where the Alliance has posted an updated version of the draft definitions.

About the Alliance

The National Alliance for Health Information Technology is a diverse partnership of senior executives from all healthcare sectors working to advance the adoption of clinical information technology systems to achieve measurable improvements in patient safety, quality of care and operating performance. The Alliance collaborates with healthcare and government leaders to influence healthcare decision-makers to act effectively in creating an efficient, safe, unified, and inclusive health system. Since its founding in 2002, the Chicago-based Alliance has helped forge consensus and accelerate progress on such important initiatives as developing an industry-endorsed interoperability definition, creating a public directory of health IT standards and authoring Rules of Engagement: A proven path for instilling, and then installing a CPOE approach that works. The Alliance is a co-founder of the Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology (CCHIT) and its CEO chaired the Commission on Systemic Interoperability (CSI). More information about the Alliance is available at http://www.nahit.org.

National Alliance for Health Information Technology