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The government needs to play a stronger role in establishing a firm foundation for meaningful use for commercial interests to flourish, according to John D. Halamka, MD, CIO at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, in an opinion article in the April edition of Health Affairs.
Written by Jeff Byers
How does someone become a meaningful user of certified EHR technology? “The policy architecture required to implement meaningful use is comprised of three interdependent rulemakings,” said Steve Posnack, policy analyst at the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC). Posnack made his comments last week during a webinar on the proposals included in the latest Certification Programs for health IT notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM.
The Office of the Federal Register made available for public inspection an Interim Final Rule with Request for Comments from the Drug Enforcement Administration, Department of Justice on e-prescribing of controlled substances.
The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology recently lanched the Nationwide Health Information Network (NHIN) Direct Project, an initiative that aims to create an easy-to-use process for relatively simple, local health information exchanges. Leading the project is Doug Fridsma, MD, PhD, acting director of the Office of Interoperability and Standards at ONC, who spoke with CMIO about the NHIN Direct initiative.
David Blumenthal, MD, the National Coordinator for Health IT, addressed the efforts thus far made by the Health IT Standards Committees who met yesterday to report and discuss their progress in further defining and refining the interim final rule for meaningful use.
During the Health IT Standards Committee meeting on Feb. 24 in Washington, D.C., the Clinical Operations Workgroup sought to gather comments on proposed recommendations on implementation specifications for content exchange, vocabulary and code set standards for the Interim Final Rule of meaningful use.
The Certification Commission for Health IT (CCHIT) will update both of its EHR technology certification programs to conform to the Interim Final Rule of meaningful use recently released by the Department of Health and Human Services. Applications will begin to be accepted Feb. 12.
Friday, July 30 2010
Friday, July 30 2010
Friday, July 30 2010
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“We’re beginning a revolution the way information is collected, managed, used and purposed for patients in the U.S. healthcare system,” said David Blumenthal, MD, chair of the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT, in opening remarks at an audioconference training session on meaningful use and EHR certification last week.
In Part 1 of our closer look at the final rules for meaningful use and EHR certification standards, CMIO’s Jeff Byers spoke with David Blumenthal, MD, chair of the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT. In Part 2, CMIOs weigh in with mixed reviews.
The framework for meaningful use is “something that had to be done and has been started intelligently,” John P. Glaser, PhD, vice president and CIO of Partners HealthCare System told CMIO. However, the challenges of becoming meaningful users and optimizing health information exchange will require unprecedented levels of communication within organizations and among healthcare systems, he said.
The contractual obligations in the notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) on modifications to the HIPAA privacy, security and enforcement rules under the HITECH Act for business associates and downstream entities are game changers, according to Amy S. Leopard, JD, from Walter and Haverfield, during a webinar sponsored by the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS).
Standardizing performance measures, with the help of health IT, will make it possible to collect the right data at the right time to support performance measurement, clinical decision support, clinical research and quality improvement, said Janet M. Corrigan, PhD, president and CEO of the National Quality Forum (NQF) during a webinar hosted by the forum on June 17.