Healthcare IT News - November 2007 - (Page 7) www.HealthcareITNews.com industry news November 2007 ■ Healthcare IT News New healthcare It bill up for House review By DIana Manos, Senior Editor In a move to get healthcare information technology legislation passed before the close of this year, Reps. Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.) and Mike Rogers (RMich.) introduced the Promotion of Health Information Technology (HIT) Act. The bill, introduced in the House on October 10, has been referred to the House Energy WAshinGton – and Commerce Sens. Edward eshoo says her C o m m i tt e e . In Kennedy (D-Mass.), opening remarks Michael Enzi (Rbill would before the House, Wyo.), Hillar y accelerate Eshoo said, “This Clinton (D-N.Y.) adoption of legislation builds and Orrin Hatch healthcare it. on the excellent (R-Utah) introwork of Senators duced The Wired Kennedy and Enzi and will pro- for Health Care Quality Act of 2007 mote HIT in the federal govern- (S. 1693) July 25. ment and throughout the healthAccording to Eshoo, a senior care sector.” member of the House Energy and Commerce Health subcommittee, her bill would accelerate the adoption of healthcare IT and increase the efficiency of the U.S. healthcare system. anna Eshoo Former Sen. John Breaux and former Rep. Nancy Johnson, co-chairs of the Health IT Now! Coalition, applauded the bill, saying there is no time to waste in passing healthcare IT legislation this year. “We commend the leadership of Representatives Eshoo and Rogers for introducing critical health IT legislation that will save lives, improve patient care and reduce the cost of healthcare by billions of dollars,” Breaux said. The bill promotes widespread adoption of healthcare IT and sets BIll see page 9 Panel proposes medical data security standards By BeRnIe MonegaIn, Editor WAshinGton – The Healthcare Information Technology Standards Panel has identified a set of standards aimed at keeping patient medical information secure in an electronic environment. Called the “security and privacy constructs,” the standards address common data protection issues in a broad range of subject areas, including electronic delivery of lab results to a clinician, medication workflow for providers and patients, quality and consumer empowerment. “Privacy and security are fundamental to health information exchange,” said John Halamka, MD, HITSP chairman. Halamka also serves as CIO and associate professor of emergency medicine at Harvard Medical School. “At HITSP, we will be incorporating all of these security standards into our past, present, and future interoperability specifications,” he said. The HITSP’s work on an overarching security and privacy architecture is the latest in a series of steps to assure the interoperability of electronic health records in the United States. It follows – coincidentally – escalating concern over patient privacy after 27 hospital staff members took a sneak peek at movie star George Clooney’s medical records. The standards developed by HITSP are designed to ensure that medical information will be used by authorized personnel solely – and only for official purposes. Identified by the National Coordinator for Healthcare Information Te c h n o l o g y (ONCHIT) as a primary prerequisite for the exchange of clinical information between authorized healthcare organizations, the constructs are expected to help improve coordinated quality care, reduce errors and control unnecessary costs, Halamka said. HITSP operates under contract to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The panel is administered by the American National Standards Institute. ■ More at HealthcareITnews.com e Connect: SecUre 1107 With Thomson Healthcare, you get the information you need before you reach the hospital doors. From demographics and patient history to laboratory results, active medications, and current orders, you’ll have access to the best, most up-to-date information when and where you need it. Through Clinical Xpert™ Navigator, Thomson Healthcare delivers critical patient data directly to your BlackBerry® smartphone or other mobile device. To see the Clinical Xpert in action, visit www.thomsonhealthcare.com/experiencemobile. ● e ● Connect: tHoMSoN 1107 http://www.HealthcareITNews.com http://www.thomsonhealthcare.com/experiencemobile http://www.thomsonhealthcare.com/experiencemobile http://www.thomsonhealthcare.com/experiencemobile http://www.HealthcareITNews.com http://www.healthcareitnews.com/story.cms?id=8026 http://www.healthcareitnews.com/eConnect.cms?id=8080
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