Healthcare IT News - December 2008 - (Page 3)

www.HealthcareITNews.com industry news December 2008 ■ Healthcare IT News industry news ahIc 2.0 succeeds the original Healthcare IT News posts original news stories on its Web site daily. Here are recent top stories, as selected by Healthcare IT News editors. Healthcare IT chief lauds ‘remarkable run.’ By DIaNa MaNos, Senior Editor Obama’s pick fOr budget chief weighs in On it President-elect Barack Obama’s pick to run the Office of Management and Budget has said in the past that federal intervention would be needed if the country were to move forward on healthcare IT adoption. Peter R. Orszag, 39, will return to the executive branch where he worked as economic adviser in the Clinton administration. He stepped down immediately from his post as director of the Congressional Budget Office and wrote his final blog, titled “Life is a series of hellos and goodbyes.” Date: 11/26/08 WASHINGTON – The American Health Information Community, the federal advisory panel to the Department of Health and Human Services on healthcare IT adoption, held its 25th and last meeting last month, leaving its private-public successor, AHIC 2.0, to carry on the work. “This has been a remarkable run that we’ve had together,” said Robert Kolodner, national coordinator for health information technology. Kolodner thanked the volunteers who worked to achieve what he called an unsurpassed amount of work. Since its inception, AHIC has brought AHIC embodied the vision of a transparent together more than 160 public- and private healthcare IT experts to develop recommen- framework for addressing healthcare IT standards, he added. dations for advancing healthcare IT. He praised AHIC’s accomplishAHIC workgroups held 176 meetments, including the development ings, resulting in 200 recommendaof a process to harmonize compettions to HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt ing healthcare IT standards; making and addressing a wide variety of sure purchasers of systems could easenablers and barriers to healthcare IT. ily learn what products are based on Leavitt said when he first convened those standards; finding ways to creAHIC in 2005, he envisioned a health- Mike Leavitt care system that put patients first, enabled ate incentives for adoption; finding ways to better management of patient care, improved measure progress; and designing and testing clinical outcomes, reduced errors and increased architectures to move personal health information around the country. convenience. AHIC Successor, Inc., or AHIC 2.0, estab“While work remains to achieve that longterm vision, I am proud of the achievements lished in July 2008 as an independent, pubthe AHIC has made to significantly advance lic-private enterprise, will succeed AHIC. ■ our nation toward it,” he said. More at HealthcareITNews.com “We have created a process that will last.” e ●Connect: aHIc 1208 hhs issues rule fOr patient safety OrganizatiOns The Department of Health and Human Services has issued a final rule on procedures and requirements for Patient Safety Organizations (PSOs). The rule allows clinicians and healthcare providers to collect and analyze patient safety event information with privilege and confidentiality protections while complying with existing reporting requirements that seek similar information. “By making it easier for clinicians and healthcare organizations to report and learn from adverse events without fear of new legal liability, we will be able to improve our nation’s healthcare systems and minimize factors that can contribute to mistakes,” said HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt. Date: 11/21/08 On Daschle, expectations By DIaNa MaNos, Senior Editor brigham and wOmen’s tests autOmated nOtificatiOn Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, a teaching affiliate of Harvard Medical School, is testing the impact of automated telephone follow-up systems on the management of patients taking commonly prescribed medications. Researchers will study whether this type of outreach facilitates communication between patients and their physicians between visits to address potentially serious issues. Date: 11/20/08 FIELD tRIP George Washington University hospital hosted congressional staff recently to show them how information technology benefits patients on many levels. Shown here, from left to right, are camille Sealy, who works with congressman Edolphus towns (D-N.Y.) on the Energy and commerce committee, carolyn Wise, who works with congressman Randy Forbes (R-Va.) on the armed Services committee, Robert Shesser, MD, professor and chair, Department of Emergency Medicine, and Juan Reyes, MD, chief medical resident. cchIt adds trustees, expands scope Watch By DIaNa MaNos, Senior Editor ge execs urge industrialist apprOach tO healthcare General Electric’s top brass - CEO Jeffrey Immelt and John Dineen, president and CEO of GE Healthcare - invoked an industrialist’s approach to addressing healthcare’s woes Nov. 18 as the company unveiled three new digital initiatives in the healthcare sector. “You have to start doing things differently,” Dineen said. “After 22 years in operations, you get comfortable with that.” As part of a collaboration to advance healthcare IT, GE and its healthcare provider partners committed more than $200 million and 400 engineers over the course of development. Date: 11/19/08 More at HealthcareITNews.com e Connect: WeBBrIeFS 1208 ● – The Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology has appointed three new members to its nine-member board of trustees. The new trustees will join with current members to provide fiscal oversight and other managerial duties, according to CCHIT chief Mark Leavitt, MD Mark Leavitt, MD. The commission also is seeking comments on ways to expand certification. The new trustees are: ■ Meighan Girgus, executive vice president of healthcare markets for the American Heart Association, in Dallas, Texas; ■ Wes Rishel, vice president and analyst for Gartner’s healthcare provider research practice, of Alameda, Calif. ■ Bruce Taffel, MD, vice president and chief medical officer at Shared Health in CHICAGO Chattanooga, Tenn. The commission has also announced it will take online submissions through Dec. 31 on how to expand the scope of its certification programs in 2011 and beyond. From its initial focus on certifying ambulatory and inpatient electronic health records and health information exchanges, the commission has expanded since 2006 into emergency department EHR products. It has also created a certification process for ambulatory EHRs with additional capabilities to serve child health and cardiovascular medicine. Certification for personal health records is under development for a July 2009 launch date, and in 2010 the commission will certify behavioral health and long-term care. Leavitt said CCHIT would review the submissions and compile them in a draft roadmap for the CCHIT board of commissioners meeting on Jan. 13. ■ More at HealthcareITNews.com e Connect: ccHIt 1208 – In the wake of the election, Washington and healthcare stakeholders nationwide waited with bated breath to hear President-elect Barack Obama’s nomination for the next Department of Health and Human Services secretary. The Nov. 19 nomination of former Sen. Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) seemed to strike the right chord and earn mostly praise. Daschle is considered a strong proponent of healthcare reform and a capable bipartisan negotiator. Yet, there washingt On are those lingering questions. How much of a priority will he make healthcare IT? And more importantly, will he scrap the work that has already been done and start over? Millions of dollars are at stake for the electronic health record companies that have already invested in certifying their products. HHS Secretary Michael Leavitt, finishing up the last few days of a term that began Jan. 26, 2005, deserves praise as a healthcare IT visionary. Daschle will have no small shoes to fill. Under Leavitt’s leadership a federal advisory panel, the American Health Information Community, held 25 public meetings, all attended by Leavitt. Its 176 workgroups came up with 200 recommendations for Leavitt on how to advance healthcare IT. Under Leavitt’s direction, AHIC helped to develop a standardsbased certification process that has now certified more than 75 MaNos see page 6 WASHINGTON ● http://www.HealthcareITNews.com http://www.HealthcareITNews.com http://www.healthcareitnews.com/story.cms?id=10495 http://www.HealthcareITNews.com http://www.HealthcareITNews.com http://www.healthcareitnews.com/story.cms?id=10501 http://www.healthcareitnews.com/story.cms?id=10497

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Healthcare IT News - December 2008

Healthcare IT News - December 2008 Contents AHIC 2.0 Debuts See How It Works Monitored to Health Right Decisions Neurologist Needed HiMSS Insider: Four to the Board Heartened Generation Next Clinical Toolkit: Inpatient EMRs Management Solutions: Asset Tracking

Healthcare IT News - December 2008

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