IVD Technology
Magazine
IVDT Article Index
Originally Published IVD Technology September 2005
INDUSTRY NEWS
HHS launches health IT initiative
Richard Park
 |
The Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Mike Leavitt, announced the formation of a national collaboration that will advance efforts to answer President Bush’s call for most Americans to have electronic health records within 10 years. The President’s vision would create a personal health record that patients, doctors, and other healthcare providers could securely access through the Internet no matter where a patient is seeking medical care. The announcement provides a way for patients, doctors, hospitals, insurance companies, and employers to agree on standards for electronic health records and ways to achieve interoperability, or the ability to access vital medical information immediately and efficiently.
An electronic health record is a digital collection of a patient’s medical history and could include items like diagnosed medical conditions, prescribed medications, vital signs, immunizations, lab test results, and personal characteristics like age and weight.
The cornerstone of this effort is a private-public collaboration called the American Health Information Community (AHIC) that will help the nationwide transition to electronic health records. The AHIC will provide input to HHS on how to make health records digital and interoperable, and assure that the privacy and security of those records are protected. The collaboration will also provide a forum for public and private interests to recommend specific actions that will accelerate the widespread application and adoption of electronic health records and other health information technology.
HHS has solicited nominations for people to serve on the AHIC, and Secretary Leavitt will appoint up to 17 commission members, as well as serve as chairperson. The AHIC will be chartered for two years, with the option to renew for no more than five years. The department intends for the AHIC to be succeeded within five years by a private-sector health information community initiative that would set additional needed standards, certify new health information technology, and provide long-term governance for healthcare transformation.
AHIC members will include officials from HHS and its component agencies, as well as representatives from other appropriate federal agencies, state government, and the private sector. In addition to eight members from the federal government and one member from state government, eight members from the private sector will be appointed. Each private-sector representative will be a key decision maker in their respective industry and should have broad support from peers and related professional organizations. Private-sector members will be selected from the following stakeholder groups: consumer and privacy interests, purchasers, third-party payers, hospitals, physicians, nurses, ancillary services (e.g., laboratories and pharmacists), and information technology vendors.
Industry analysts believe that IVD manufacturers could benefit greatly from the creation of electronic health records.
"One of the principal benefits I see from the nation establishing electronic medical records is that the IVD industry will now be able to establish all kinds of knowledge-based applications," says Emery J. Stephans, president and chief executive officer at Enterprise Analysis Corp. (Stamford, CT). "That kind of knowledge-based application would never be feasible were it not for the fact that all kinds of diagnostic data would be in it. In other words, without diagnostic data, there’s almost no point in establishing an electronic medical record because it would limit its usefulness and its applications to some very menial recording of doctors’ visits and treatments administered. Therefore, without diagnostic data, an electronic medical record would otherwise not be worthwhile. So among the beneficiaries will be the diagnostic industry, principally because diagnostic companies will be able to establish knowledge-based applications and make them work for the benefit of the patient."
Additional information may be accessed via the HHS Web site at www.hhs.gov/healthit/.
Copyright ©2005 IVD Technology
