The National Alliance For Health Information Technology Explores Next Set Of Strategic Initiatives

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Article Date: 27 Mar 2008 - 3:00 PDT

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After six ground-breaking years, The National Alliance for Health Information Technology (Alliance) has launched a process to explore new ways to make further contributions to the healthcare field in light of the significant developments in health information technology (HIT) since the group's founding in 2002. In addition, Scott Wallace, Alliance president and chief executive since 2003, has stepped down.

Alliance Board Chairman Curt Selquist, retired chairman Johnson & Johnson Health Care Systems Inc., is serving as interim CEO.

Selquist notes that "While there have been unprecedented advances in the adoption and use of health information technology, there is enormous unfulfilled potential that needs be realized sooner rather than later. This will require new strategies and tactics and a different operating structure."

As work continues on important projects, the Alliance's board of directors is developing new approaches, with recommendations expected by early May. The initiative is headed by board member Neil Jesuele, executive vice president of leadership and business development for the American Hospital Association.

"The Alliance team led by Scott Wallace has accomplished much in a short amount of time. By serving in the unique role of unifier and consensus-builder, the Alliance has focused on finding common ground among senior executives from across healthcare to overcome what seemed intractable and differing interests in addition to other barriers to HIT adoption," says Selquist.

"But the state of HIT in the United States in 2008 is vastly different than in 2002, when the Alliance was formed," notes Selquist. "It is time to take stock, to consider the best way forward since much still remains to be done before HIT is pervasive, interoperable and the platform for the most effective, safe, affordable and inclusive health system possible. We need to be aggressive in pursuit of these outcomes."

Over its initial six years, the Alliance's accomplishments have been many with several key efforts still in progress, including:

Leading change

The Alliance led a successful effort to gain industry consensus on the use of bar codes in the identification of medication products, which informed the Food and Drug Administration in producing final regulations.

The Alliance co-founded the Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology (CCHIT) and serves on its board of trustees. With the Healthcare Supply Chain Standards Coalition, the Alliance led a pioneering effort to select supply chain data standards and now is driving efforts for industry implementation.

The Alliance spent more than a year working with the Louisiana Health Care Redesign Collaborative and the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals to devise a fundamental overhaul of the greater New Orleans healthcare system following Hurricane Katrina. The Alliance was instrumental in the work of the Commission on Systemic Interoperability (CSI,) with Wallace serving as chair. With the goal of fostering HIT adoption, the Alliance, along with member BearingPoint, is spearheading a project for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Office of the National Coordinator to create definitions for five key HIT terms.

Creating and disseminating knowledge

The Alliance built and made public the first comprehensive directory of HIT data standards, then donated its contents to the National Institute for Standards and Technology. It collaborated with its members to assemble a proven, practical guide for implementing computerized-physician order-entry.

Informing and shaping legislation and regulation

The Alliance developed a definition for interoperability that has been adopted industry-wide, including in the 2006 Safe Harbors/Anti-Kickback Rules (aka Stark Rules) and in proposed legislation.

"It has been a privilege to lead the Alliance and to help create the future of connected health information," says Wallace. "We accomplished much of what the Alliance's visionary founders set out to do by articulating the future of clinical information, establishing its value and removing barriers to its adoption. I have been fortunate to have been part of a remarkable team of people who have worked incredibly hard to make this a success. I am looking forward to taking a little time off to recharge before announcing some new health technology ventures."

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).

National Alliance for Health Information Technology