Healthcare IT News - January 2009 - (Page 16) 16 The HIMSS Insider I January 2009 www.himss.org T Patterns in Change his issue marks the start of our 10th year Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise (IHE) publishing Standards Insight, summarized was then a two-year-old partnership between monthly in the HIMSS Insider. This month, HIMSS and the Radiological Society of North when in the past we have often presented the America. It held its first interoperability demonyear in review, we will look back at that 10-year stration, for a single profile, at HIMSS 2000. period and some surprising things it tells us Tracking interoperability standards provides about today. a unique vantage point for underWe began, as now, during an healthcare IT. STANDARDS standing on the leadingStandards election year that foresaw the end are not edge of of one administration and began change. Healthcare IT-based to set the expectations for the opportunities are identified and next. We were amid Y2K and the validated by innovators and only dot-com bubble, a time when then do these initiatives have to by Ed Larsen Healtheon had a greater market begin to fit in and interoperate capitalization than all of the other public with other healthcare IT applications and syshealthcare IT companies combined. While e- tems. For example, digital imaging begot picture health was the next big thing, the dominant archiving and communications systems (PACS), theme of that period was HIPAA. We devoted and Digital Imaging and Communications in many of our issues to trying to assess the Medicine (DICOM) standards for interoperatimpact of the HIPAA proposed rules for stan- ing were created. However, IHE came into dard transactions, privacy and security. being to knit interoperability standards from the During the two-year period pre-9/11, virtu- DICOM world to the rest of the enterprise, prially all of the current standards players were at marily based on HL7 standards. Innovation the table. Health Level Seven (HL7) demon- leading to standards in this period became the strated Version 3.0 messages based on its nas- platform for the explosive growth in PACS a cent Reference Information Model (RIM) for few years later. Standards are not the earliest the second time at the 2000 Annual HIMSS indicator of new trends, but they occur very Conference & Exhibition. It also released its early in the adoption process. Only when interPatient Record Architecture Level 1, which, a operability standards are in place will end users year later, became the Clinical Document invest broadly in IT. National Council for Architecture (CDA). XML was firmly embed- Prescription Drug Programs standards became ded in healthcare. The American Standards the base upon which the 2003 Medicare Committee X12's standards had become the Modernization Act directed use of e-prescribbasis of the HIPAA transactions. The ing. HL7's EHR System Functional Model Workgroup for Electronic Data Interchange underpins most of the Certification was gearing up to accelerate implementation. Commission for Healthcare Information INSIGHT Technology criteria for evaluating EHRs. A few change patterns have become well established. First, Washington is more and more the focal point of the healthcare IT industry. We seem to have accepted the fact healthcare IT adoption needs some push, funds or a mandate from the Federal government. Waiting for Washington, during times of change, can lead to paralysis. Second, left to conceptual thinking and not business drivers, standards development organizations will not harmonize their standards. We have gone from 1)There are too many standards, to 2) Just pick one, to 3) “You did not pick my standard!” Third, steady progress occurs when there are series of annual targets, e.g., IHE Connectathons or American Health Information Community breakthroughs. The challenge is guiding these steps within a larger strategy. Big concepts and projects stall, dinged by the incessant details and changing consensus. If we can offer any advice to the Obama administration and the new secretary of Health and Human Services, Tom Daschle, it is: continue current initiatives and tweak them to better align with your reform. Start again and we lose six years. We thank HIMSS for its support and look forward to continuing to provide insight through the prism of interoperability standards. I For the complete article, see the January Standards Insight on the HIMSS Member start page. Ed Larsen is an independent strategy consultant who tracks interoperability standards for HIMSS. Comments or questions can be sent to erlarsen@erlinc.com. PHOTO COURTESY OF CHICAGO CONVENTION & TOURISM BUREAU PUBLICATIONS STAFF VICE PRESIDENT, COMMUNICATIONS Fran Perveiler MANAGER, PUBLICATIONS Nancy Vitucci SENIOR MANAGER, CORPORATE COMMUNICATIONS Joyce Lofstrom SENIOR MANAGER, PUBLIC POLICY COMMUNICATIONS Sharolyn Rosier Hyson SENIOR EDITOR Matt Schlossberg COORDINATOR, COMMUNICATIONS Cari McLean BOARD OF DIRECTORS CHAIR Charles E. Christian, FCHIME, FHIMSS Director, Information Systems/ Chief Information Officer Good Samaritan Hospital VICE CHAIR Liz Johnson, RN, MSN, FHIMSS Vice President, Applied Clinical Informatics Tenet Healthcare Corp. CHAIR ELECT Barry P. Chaiken, MD, MPH, FHIMSS Chief Medical Officer DocsNetwork, Ltd. VICE CHAIR ELECT Coming Next Month: HIMSS09 Preview Edition The special HIMSS09 Preview, which mails next month as a supplement to the February 2009 Healthcare IT News, is the source for news about the 2009 Annual HIMSS Conference & Exhibition, April 48 in Chicago–the industry's biggest event for education, innovation and knowledge sharing. The HIMSS09 Preview explores the education lineup offering best practices, interactive learning and solutions through keynotes, Views from the Top sessions, e-sessions, roundtable discussions, pre-conference workshops and symposia, and the new Synergy Sessions for communities of profession and Ambulatory Professional Practicum. Also featured in the Preview is the exhibition of 900-plus leading healthcare IT vendors displaying today's cutting-edge products and innovative emerging technologies; the exhibition also features an interactive Interoperability Showcase demonstrating the real-world benefits of interoperable patient data exchange. Rounding out the Preview's HIMSS09 coverage is the variety of net- Liz Johnson, RN, MSN, FHIMSS Vice President, Applied Clinical Informatics Tenet Healthcare Corp. John H. Daniels, FACHE, CPHIMS, CHPS, FHIMSS Chief Information Officer Evolvent Technologies Inc. David Finn Vice President/Chief Information Officer/ Privacy and Information Security Officer Texas Children's Hospital C. Martin Harris, MD, MBA, FHIMSS Chief Information Officer and Chairman, IT Division The Cleveland Clinic Foundation Executive Director eCleveland Clinic Joy G. Keeler, MBA, FHIMSS Principal Health Information Technology The MITRE Corp. Holly D. Miller, MD, MBA, FHIMSS Vice President and Chief Medical Information Officer University Hospitals Carol R. Selvey, MHSA, FHIMSS Principal The Revere Group Jay Srini, FHIMSS Chief Innovation Officer UPMC Insurance Services Division Jonathan M. Teich, MD, PhD, FHIMSS Chief Medical Informatics Officer Elsevier Health Sciences Charlene S. Underwood, MBA, FHIMSS Director, Government and Industry Affairs Siemens Medical Solutions ADVISORY BOARD MEMBERS n December HIMSS issued a report: Call for Action: Enabling Healthcare Reform Using Information Technology - Recommendations for the Obama Administration and the 111th Congress. The full report is available at www.himss.org/2009CallToAction. The Call for Action was developed by HIMSS' Healthcare Transformation through Health IT (HTHIT) Work Group. Chaired by members Maggie Lohnes, RN (Chair, HIMSS Advocacy & Public Policy Steering Committee) and Harry Greenspun, MD (Chair, HIMSS Government Relations Roundtable), the Work Group consisted of more than 100 volunteers including physicians, nurses, pharmacists, hospital and clinical practice leaders, consumers, IT specialists, consultants, lawyers, payers, vendors, and representatives from state-level health information exchange organizations, and the federal government. To ensure that health IT is appropriately addressed in anticipated healthcare reform policy in 2009, HIMSS work group developed unified recommendations for the new Congress and Administration concerning the role of health IT in healthcare reform. The recommendations represent necessary measures to I working opportunities offered throughout HIMSS09, registration and travel details, as well as ideas on things to see and do in Chicago. I Health IT Recommendations Issued to New Administration and 111th Congress develop and sustain a robust IT infrastructure for healthcare. HIMSS believes the priority recommendations can help reform healthcare and stimulate the U.S. economy, and should be implemented within the first 120 days of the Obama Administration. First, HIMSS recommends the Administration and Congress invest a minimum of $25 billion dollars on health IT. This funding should: • Mandate electronic medical record adoption, • Provide electronic medical records for children, and • Establish health IT Empowerment Zones. HIMSS' second recommendation is to apply recognized standards and require certified health IT products among all federally funded health programs by mandating that any funding appropriated for the purchase or upgrade of new health IT products among providers and payers of federally funded health programs be allocated only for the use of health IT products that apply HITSP interoperability specifications and are CCHIT-certified. Finally, within the first 120 days of the Administration, HIMSS recommends that President Obama convene a White House Summit on Healthcare Reform through Information Technology to develop consensus and propose solutions to critical national health IT issues within the context of the larger national healthcare reform effort. HIMSS other recommendations are comprehensive a http://www.himss.org http://www.himss.org/2009CallToAction
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