#HIMSS16 Las Vegas Here We Come

The 2016 HIMSS Annual Conference & Exhibition is coming up between February 29 - March 4, 2016 in Las Vegas. This is the Super Bowl of health IT and will bring together over 40,000 health IT professionals, clinicians, executives and vendors from around the world. There are some great educational sessions, and the tradeshow floor will highlight the latest in health IT products. Some very interesting keynote addresses from Michael Dell, Sylvia Matthews Burwell, and even Peyton Manning (who has his own Super Bowl to contend with before the conference. With all of the changes in healthcare underway, this year's conference will be sure to keep CIO's and other decision makers in the loop as to what to expect over the next year. Having attended a few of these events in the past I can guarantee this will be worth the investment of time and resources.

This year I am joining a powerful group of healthcare social media experts who will be tweeting, blogging and leveraging all of the top social media platforms to get the word out and bring the latest news and information. The list of luminaries can all be found on Twitter and many have their own blogs as well. Tweet me @ahier and subscribe to whole list of HIMSS Social Media Ambassadors (SMAs) including:

Andrew DeLaO: @cancergeek

Bill Bunting: @WTBunting

Brad  Justus: @brad_justus

Charles Webster: @wareflo

Colin Hung: @colin_hung

Geeta Nayyar: @gnayyar

Glenn Lanteigne: @glennlanteigne

Jane Sarasohn-Kahn: @healthythinker

Janice McCallum: @janicemccallum

John Lynn: @techguy

Linda Stotsky: @emranswers

Mandi Bishop: @mandibpro

Matthew Fisher: @matt_r_fisher

Nick Van Terheyden: @drnic1

Pat Rich: @pat_health

Shahid Shah: @ShahidNShah

Steve Sisko: @shimcode

Tamara StClaire: @drstclaire

Wen Dombrowski: @HealthcareWen

Also be sure to watch the Healthcare IT News website and Updates and Announcements from the HIMSS Conference website, as well as the king of content aggregators in the industry HIStalk. All of the SMA's have a powerful presence on social media and there is already a great deal of buzz for the upcoming event. Symplur provides social media analytics and shows that so far for the month of January the #HIMSS15 hashtag has almost 5,000 tweeters have joined in the conversation, with over 15,00 tweets and an amazing 91 million+ impressions on the web. So get ready Las Vegas, here we come!

National Health IT Week Blog Carnival

National Health Information Technology Week is an event with various activities in Washington D.C. and communities all around the country. Over at healthitweek.org they have a good list of ten ways to participate in National Health IT Week. I am looking forward to hosting the National Health IT Week Blog Carnival which will run from September 16-20, 2013. This year the theme is "The Value of Health IT." My first post this week is on achieving the value of health IT through the use of analytics. Below are a few of the early posts to kick off the carnival that I want to highlight, and then I'll be updating this post each day during National Health IT Week as the posts come rolling in.

NHIT Week Day One

One of the major highlights of day one of NHIT Week was the 8th Annual Consumer Health IT Summit (which Lygeia Ricciardi, the ONC Consumerista wrote about last week). US Chief Technology Officer Todd Park spoke at the event and set the focus on Blue Button. He termed it a movement which allows patients to access their data and share it with their clinicians and family members. Robert Tagalicod, director of eHealth at CMS said over one million CMS patients used Blue Button to access their information. Marina Martin, the CTO at the VA, which really started this Blue Button movement, spoke about the VA no longer just provides dumb ASCII text but now supports continuity-of-care documents to veterans in a machine readable and actionable format. Todd Park talked about how investors entrepreneurs have embraced Blue Button which Farzad Mostashari, the current national coordinator for Health IT, said this shows what a great idea was developed and incubated by the government and has now filtered into the private sector. Government as a platform for innovation!

• Lygeia Ricciardi, the Director of the Office of Consumer eHealth for ONC, and well known Consumerista has written a post "The Blue Button Movement: Kicking off National Health IT Week with Consumer Engagement" which highlights the ONC’s 3rd annual Consumer Health IT Summit: Accelerating the Blue Button Movement being held Monday September 16, 2013 . Lygeia provides a basic overview of the Blue Button initiative: who’s it for (consumers), how it has influenced the broader healthcare community and its future. The Consumer Health IT Summit is full, but you can attend virtually via webcast.

• Dr. Nick van Terheyden, CMIO of Nuance, wrote a nice post called "#NHITweek: Technology That Works for Physicians vs. Against Them." This post focused on how to make speech technology is an example of health IT working for doctors, versus against them (example, EHR templates). It was an expansion of Dr. van Terheyden’s recent Fast Company article entitled “Could The Future Of Health Care Mean No Waits In Hospitals?”

• Brian Parrish of Dodge Communications wrote "NHIT week: the impact of population health on the HIT space." This post is a Q&A with Healthcare Informatics’ Editor-in-Chief, Mark Hagland, focusing on population health management. Mark emphasizes how important it is for the industry to not rely on a single “off the shelf” population health management solution, but instead encourages health IT leaders to leverage existing IT in a skillful, strategic approach. The post really highlights analytics as a particularly valuable health IT tool.

• Over on the entarasys blog Ali Youssef, the Senior Wireless Solutions Architect at Henry Ford Health System and member of the mHIMSS advisory council, wrote "Is it time for a dedicated mHealth manager, and team?" about the need for a dedicated mHealth manager and team. He disagrees with the thought that mHealth is a silo in an organization and will not need its own distinction in the future. In his opinion, this view takes for granted the level of expertise required to ensure seamless mobility functions properly, along with the patient data security and privacy measures.

• Dave Levy, Senior Account Manager at SHIFT Communications (disclosure: SHIFT does the PR for HIMSS) wrote a  blog carnival recap of his own entitled "What We Talk About When We, The Communicators and Patients, Talk Health IT." The post offers a glimpse at the work of the SHIFT HealthyComms team. To answer the question of the value of health IT, Dave states that it comes back to one answer: there is a way technology can make our health needs more about care and less about paperwork. He the highlights three recent HealthyComms posts that touch on this topic.

• Carla Smith, Executive Vice President at HIMSS wrote "How Do You Measure the Value of Health IT?" which stays with the theme of the “value of health IT.” Carla takes her post one step further by answering the question that many providers and health IT advocates in the healthcare industry are facing today: what proof do you have of the value of health IT? The post includes a series of proof points, including data from CMS and data from a HIMSS Davies Award winner, Hawai’i Pacific Health. The data from the latter organization is available in HIMSS’ Health IT Value Suite, a new robust library of value-focused, evidence-based use cases documenting the value of health IT.

• Beth Walsh, the Editor at Clinical Innovation + Technology, wrote a post called "The value of health IT." In it Beth highlights the fact that health IT not only offers financial benefits, but it also improves elements of patient care such as patient safety and clinician efficiency. She sees the value of health IT demonstrated by its ability to transform our healthcare system into one that is truly focused on health, a focus achieved through the coordination of vast amounts of available data from multiple resources throughout our healthcare system.

• Jonathan Handler, M.D., the CMIO at M*Modal, wrote "Recycling Automation Back Into HIT" offering examples of how health IT’s ability to automate tests, labs and even clinical documentation that directly supports patient care. However, health IT is being underutilized on one key administrative area because of the current fee-for-service model: billing. Dr. Handler asserts that the current fee-for-service, many clinicians believe that health IT can lead to fraud accusations, forcing clinicians to re-document information that’s already in a medical record. If we move to a value-based model, provider and payor incentives would align rather than conflict, and HIT automation would be seen as desirable rather than deceitful. This trend is already growing across the industry but has yet to become the norm, but perhaps that will change by NHIT Week 2014?

• Trey Lauderdale, the Founder and President of Voalte, penned "Nurse Communication is Just Beginning" where he highlights the proliferation of mobile health, specifically smartphones and tablets, as an example of health IT’s value and how it is improving the way caregivers deliver patient care. Trey focuses on a few key examples including the ability for clinicians to easily review imaging reports with patients at the point of care and the ability to move and share information with patients with speed.

• Blair Butterfield, President, US Management at VitalHealth, posted "What is the value of health IT?" where he takes readers back to basics and reminds everyone that we must remember to observe the value of health IT through the lens of caring for patients. Blair then looks at several key factors and breaks down each accordingly: efficiency, accuracy, accessibility, quality and cost.

• K Royal, the Privacy Counsel at Align Technology and the International Association of Privacy Professionals, has an interesting write up "On Where Health IT and Privacy Meet." To address the value of health IT, K Royal highlights what she deems as “leading topics in health IT,” offering specific praise for the advanced level of patient care that telehealth and telesurgery affords providers. But K Royal cautions that in order to seize and maximize upon these benefits and advancements in patient care, the healthcare industry must collaborate with all stakeholders from day one. For example, IT developers should be working hand-in-hand with patient privacy experts at the initial point of creation, not retrospectively.

• Alan Portela, the CEO of Air Strip, wrote on Mobile Health Matters "An Industry Retrospective Demands a Call to Action" where he offers cautious praise for the value of health IT, imploring that health IT vendors must collaborate with each other to offer solutions the provider can use today. Alan reflects on the various events that he feels have placed an undue financial strain on hospitals and health systems across the country which includes the following: introduction of reimbursement penalties, the politics of the ACA and Obama’s election, unexpected sequestration cuts, industry consolidation (ex. Vanguard Health Systems and Tenet Healthcare), ICD-10 and MU Stage 2.

• Jon Mertz, the Vice President of Marketing, Corepoint Health, wrote the catchy post "What’s the Value of Health IT? It’s About Me, Me, Me" (perhaps Ross Martin, MD could make this into a song? :) Jon brings back the value of health IT to the patient, encouraging what we in the healthcare industry refer to as “patient engagement.” As his aptly titled post indicates, health IT should be about “me, me, me.” Examples of simple ways to become an engaged patient include: maintaining a healthy lifestyle and tracking it accordingly, be active members of support communities to encourage our peers or fellows patients to become engaged and know that we (patients) have the right to have easy access to our medical history at any point in our lives.

• CDW Healthcare posted "Patient Satisfaction Rx? Health IT" and identified ways in which health IT are already adding value to the patient care via patient satisfaction. Examples of specific health IT initiatives include EMRs, patient engagement tools and technologies to streamline check-ins at doctor visits. CDW Healthcare asserts that IT offers ways to provide patients with better (and more) information and that this is the key to improving patient care.

• Elizabeth Boehm, the Director of National Patient Experience Collaborative at Vocera wrote "WHEN TECHNOLOGY IS HUMANIZING" where she plays off of the common ding against health IT in that technology lacks the same warmth and human touch as, well, humans. But there are examples of when health IT can offset the limitations of human-to-human interactions. These examples include bridging physical gaps (telehealth), reinforced communications and virtual support groups.

• Reid Coleman, MD,the CMIO of Evidence-Based Medicine at Nuance wrote "How Health IT Can Help Physicians Master the Evolving Patient Narrative." Dr. Coleman highlights the capabilities of clinical language understanding technology, demonstrating its value to healthcare by its ability to make clinical documentation easier for physicians, allowing them to perform at the top of their license.

• And Chad Johnson, the Managing editor of HL7Standards.com and marketing communications manager at Corepoint Health, wrote "It’s Not Complicated: Health IT Makes Our Lives Better" where he discusses how health IT provides information and allows connections in many ways: payers to providers, providers to other providers, caregivers to patients, and now the most fundamental connection of patients to data about their care and their bodies.

NHIT Week Day Two

• We start day two of the NHIT Week Blog Carnival with Jane Sarasohn-Kahn of the very popular HEALTHPopuli blog and a health economist and management consultant who wrote the post "Healing the Patient-Doctor Relationship with Health IT." Jane focuses on the consumer adoption and involvement in personal health IT, pointing to recent findings that show most health-engaged people may trust a physician less than a non-engaged patient. Simultaneously, these patients are also turning to online health resources (over physicians) for health information. In order to preserve the doctor-patient relationship, Jane asserts that providers must “open up the digital health kimono – EHRs” in order to successfully transition from the volume-based payment model to the value-based model.

• Russell P. Branzell, President and CEO at CHIME wrote the important piece "HIT Capabilities – They Are Personally Important to Me." Russell shares how he has personally witnessed the power of health IT through a personal story. His son was diagnosed with Landerhans Cell Histiocytosis, a rare cancer-like blood disorder, four years ago and while the experts that can treat his son are within the state, they are still 65 miles away at Denver Children’s Hospital. Health IT enabled the remote treatment of Rusell’s son, making him one of the first non-adult chemotherapy patients treated and managed remotely by the experts at Children's Hospital. Russell and family are glad to report that there is a happy outcome to this story: after intensive treatments during his junior and senior year of high school, Russell’s son is in full remission and doing great at college. Russell offers this as an example of the simple and profound ways that wires, software and computers (health IT) can be the difference between life and death.
  

• Udayan Mandavia, the CEO at iPatientCare, submitted the post "Value of Healthcare IT from my perspective" which highlights how health IT helps patients and physicians remain engaged and proactive in their health. He also points to how health IT bridges gaps in care caused by socioeconomic disparities, leveling the playing field for communities across the country (and the world). Udayan concludes with this point: healthcare IT leads to “better outcomes, lower costs, meaningfully.” 

• Nick Giannas, Senior Associate at Witt/Kieffer, writes "What’s the Value of Health IT? The CIO Has the Answer." Nick asserts that health IT is actually invaluable as it enables what we understand as the continuum of healthcare. He instead asks why everyone in healthcare doesn’t share this same viewpoint, asserting that guidance and leadership on the value of health IT must come from the C-suite, thus the CIO is extremely valuable. As an executive recruiter, Nick offers several defining characteristics that every new CIO should have. 

• Cortney Nicolato, Vice President at Get Real Health, has written "Get Real Health is Participating in National Health IT Week." Cortney states that health IT brings effective, evidence-based healthcare to patients that enables improved, scalable patient-provider collaboration that transcends geographic boundaries.

• Charles Christian, the VP/CIO, St. Francis Hospital, has written "Using Health IT to Resolve the Unknown." In this post Charles offers an example of the value of health IT through a story of how the Indiana Health Information Exchange (IHIE) helped patients in the aftermath of the August 2011 Indiana State Fairgrounds event when a temporary roof structure collapsed, killing seven and injuring 58. All of the surrounding medical facilities were connected to the IHIE, providing a centralized method of knowing where patients have been transported so that families and loved ones could track down any injured patient accordingly.

• Geeta Nayyar, M.D. the CMIO at PatientPoint added the post "National Health IT Week Provides a Glimpse of the Future." Dr. Nayyar offers her perspective on health IT’s role in improving the quality of healthcare delivery as a practicing physician. Throughout the week, she’ll be offering a series of blog posts that will touch on specific topics ranging from new patient engagement strategies for physicians to the value of predictive analytics. To close out her opening post, Dr. Nayyar insists that health IT will only see its full potential when it becomes completely integrated into the daily lives of patients and families.

• Brett Davis, a Principal at Deloitte Consulting, wrote "Leveraging 'real world evidence' to answer the hard questions in health care." Brett feels that we are in a place where today’s healthcare environment can be captured in this quote: “It was the best of times; it was the worst of times.” Modern day medicine coupled enables advancements like “personalized medicine” but the unsustainable cost structure of the system threatens future innovation. Brett indicates that many characterize the value vs. volume reimbursement model as one that stifles innovation and offers an alternative: a data driven, value-based, personalized healthcare system.

• Scott Mace the Editor at HealthLeaders Magazine wrote a great article entitled "Patients Define Evolving Expectations for HIT" whereby through a series of interviews with key stakeholders across the healthcare spectrum, he finds the true value of health IT lies in the happy-medium space where patients are empowered by their providers to be engaged and proactive in their own care and encouraged to view physicians as the “curator, guide, Sherpa, coach and counselor.

• Gail Latimer, MSN, RN, the VP and Chief Nursing Officer at Siemens, wrote "The Value of Health IT – A Nursing Perspective." Gail touches on the themes that are echoed in advocates of Accountable Care Organizations and the Patient Centered Medical Home: one key way to improve and streamline patient care is by allowing all healthcare professionals across the continuum to function at the top of their license. Gail touches on nurses specifically and highlights how health IT can help support nurses in this new setting by providing timely access to key clinical information they need to deliver care.

NHIT Week Day Three

• Author: Debr L. Ness, President at the National Partnership for Women & Families, wrote a post "Realizing the Value of Health IT: Jumpstarting Efforts to Reduce Health Disparities." Debra asserts that health IT is a valuable tool we can use to reduce disparities for millions of Americans and improve the quality of health care. She highlights a new resource that offers “real hope” to realize the potential value of health IT: the Disparities Action Plan from the Consumer Partnership for eHealth (CPeH). She offers a high-level overview of the Action Plan, which offers a policy roadmap for reducing healthcare disparities while advancing patient- and family-centered care, better outcomes and lower costs.

• Author: Geeta Nayyar, M.D., CMIO at PatientPoint, is a prolific writer and adds her second post "Predictive Analytics: Crunching the Numbers to Deliver Personalized Care" where she shares a relatable patient situation to show how predictive analytics can impact can improve healthcare delivery. Geeta then offers other examples of how predictive analytics will help all healthcare providers in the future but cautions that the following must happen first: the integration of patient data across all healthcare stakeholders, including pharmacies, laboratories and other non-traditional providers (ex. Holitic healthcare). Dr. Nayyar also points out that prior insurance claims may also be used here as well as they shed light into a patient’s medical history.

• Hans J. Buitendijik, M. Sc., a Senior Key Expert at Siemens Healthcare submitted "Interoperability: How Much Progress Have We Made?." Hans highlights how “interoperability” is a big buzz word in the healthcare industry and defines it, at the core, as the following: the ability to consistently and unambiguously exchange data between two or more computer systems. This means that there needs to be a clear understanding, on both sides of that communication channel, of when, what, and how to exchange the relevant data. Hans then reflects on the interoperability successes he has witnessed at his organization and speaks to the next wave of challenges.
  

• Cindy Munn, MHA, the Executive Director at Louisiana Health Care Quality Forum, which is an NHIT Week partner and the overseer of Louisiana’s REC and HIE, wrote "Building A Healthier State Through Health IT" where she breaks down specific patient benefits of EHRs and living in a state that supports a robust, interconnected HIE system.

• Stoltenberg Consulting, Inc. submitted the post "Reflecting on the Today’s Value of HIT to Celebrate NHIT Week." Five members of the Stoltenberg Consulting team ponder the value of HIT from the small scale of a personal physician’s appointment, to a wide view of the impact on nationwide healthcare progress.

• Harry Greenspun, MD, Senior Advisor over at Deloitte Center for Health Solutions, wrote the piece "Health IT: adding lasting value to the “fly-by” appointments." Harry compares a recent experience attending a “Back to School” event for his son with the traditional physician visit. Like the “Back to School” event, Dr. Greenspun and his wife only got to meet the teachers for a brief moment, much like a regular annual check-up at the doctor’s office. However, unlike our healthcare system, the teachers ended their conversations by deferring to the online resources, including everything from test results to a teacher/parent portal to speak directly with the teachers. Dr. Greespun then points to the increase in EHR adoption rates but notes that their recent survey indicates that a majority of physicians aren’t using health IT in their primary work-setting (and the system has a long way to go).

• Andrew Litt, M.D., Dell Chief Medical Officer, wrote the very thought provoking post "Breaking the code: The potential of the $100 genome." Dr. Litt asserts that the race is on to bring the process genome sequencing to $100/per complete genome, a cost drop that will make personalized medicine truly accessible and offer a gateway to understanding the underlying molecular pathways for disease. He then spells out the steps the industry needs to take before getting there and how big data analytics will be needed to make sense of all the data (once available) to treat diseases – and perhaps, in the far future, prevent them in utero. 

• Andrew Mellin, MD, Vice President and Medical Director of Enterprise Intelligence at Relay Health, wrote "Population Health Management: A Risky Business." Dr. Mellin emphasizes the importance of risk management models in the new value-based, population health-focused healthcare system. He offers tips on how healthcare leaders can integrate risk models into their population management strategies in three specific areas.

• John Yurkschatt, DCA Project Manager at Direct Consulting Associates, submitted a post posing the question "A Career in Healthcare IT…Do You Have the Right Stuff?" As a HIT search consultant, John shares his insights into the “qualities and soft skills” – those skills beyond education, knowledge and experience – that healthcare organizations are looking for when hiring a HIT professional. He highlights the following six traits: communication skills, integrity, work ethic, problem-solving skills, ability to act as a team player and flexibility/adaptability.

• Larry Grandia, Board Member at HealthCatalyst and Former Intermountain CIO, wrote the awesome piece "My Thanks to Healthcare IT Professionals … Along with a Look Back and Forward." Larry reflects on his lifetime of work in the healthcare industry, offering high praise for all health IT professionals that have worked tirelessly in automating critical work processes, at all levels and in widely diverse areas of healthcare organizations. He also calls out specific points throughout his years in healthcare where the industry has lagged and dragged its feet in the development of data warehouses and the digital architecture/networks to support it but concludes on a positive note, offering these encouraging words, “I firmly believe the peak is in sight!” I highly recommend reading this one!

• Michael Graham, VP, Program Development and Marketing Services at Priority Consult, wrote "Three Steps to Ensure that the EHR Boom Isn’t Another Fad." Michael offers thoughts on how EHR system design can be adjusted to continue being relevant in the clinical community. His three suggestions include: ensuring access to information for the purpose of analysis and benchmarking; recognizing the individuality of clinical specialties; and promoting interoperability among a variety of systems.

NHIT Week Day Four

• Charlene Underwood, Senior Director, Government & Industry at Siemens Health Services, wrote the post "What does HIT mean to me?" where she offers her perspectives as a vendor representative on the HIT Policy Committee Meaningful Use Workshop Group. Charlene asserts that EHR adoption is already here and now the task getting the U.S. healthcare system to start delivering healthcare in a 21st century way. To do that, we must begin laying out the framework for an information technology infrastructure that can support this in how care will be delivered and paid for, a task that is inextricably intertwined with interoperability. While we still have plenty of work to do, Charlene says “Bring it on – there is not an industry that needs it more! It’s time to join the 21st century.”

• David Harlow, Founder of The Harlow Group, LLC, submitted "OCR and ONC release model NPPs" David offers his perspective on how the recently released HIPAA Notice of Privacy Practices (NPP) compliance tools – released during the “H-hour” to before the HIPAA Omnibus Rule compliance rules drops next week -- could be better handled via using basic health IT. He states that while telephone and snail mail are nice, many patients would prefer to be in contact with their health care providers via text message or email and that it is their right to have such access. But he does over praise for the model NPP, noting that the model NPP is a useful tool.

• Geeta Nayyar, M.D., CMIO at PatientPoint. submitted another great post entitled "Unlocking the Potential of Mobile Technology." Dr. Nayyar shares her perspective on the why it is important to ingrate the currently siloed mobile health technology space, where there are provider apps and patient apps, using statistics and research from various mobile health adoption studies. She asserts that we will see a dramatic positive transformation in our healthcare system when patients and providers should be able to use the same tools and access the same information in real time.

• Scott Rupp from Electronic Health Reporter wrote "What is the Value of Health IT?" Although the question for HIMSS’ 2nd Annual NHIT Week Blog Carnival is simple, Scott points out that there seem to be no easy answer as the responses are very different depending upon who you ask (as is clearly evident from this Carnival!). Scott thus put the question out to experts in the community and features comments from 14 leaders across the industry.

• And the amazing John Halamka, M.D., CIO of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, reposted his fantastic piece "Patient and family engagement in ICUs" on Government Health IT. Dr. Halamka uses his father’s recent passing and end of life experience to demonstrate the value of developing a cross-disciplinary, multi-institutional, open source application to turn critical care data into wisdom for patients and families. Dr. Halamka’s father suffered from multiple sclerosis for 23 years along with several other comorbidities since 2009. Upon arriving at his ICU bedside in early March, Dr. Halamka spoke with all his clinicians to create an impressive mental dashboard of his progress which he then turned into a scorecard. Dr. Halamka combined both of those with his father’s end of life wishes and leveraged his 20+ years of experience as a CIO, practicing physician and clinical team leader to determine that hospice care was the best decision. Ideally, patients and families should have the tools to make such decisions regardless of their medical sophistication and he is working to make that possible at his facility. Read more about how his healthcare organization is undertaking this ambitious project.

• Ruby Raley over at Axway wrote "The Future is at the Intersection: Where Healthcare Information Technology meets the Internet of Things." Ruby is writing about the intersection of the The Quantified Self movement and the Internet of Things and how if used in conjunction together they can help to shape the future of Health IT. Ruby contends that using the low-cost technology sensors employed by users of the Quantified Self Movement one could potentially use those sensors to accelerate healthcare information by giving those sensors to patients to wear and following the platform laid out by the Internet of Things, constantly gather the data to serve as predictors of future health conditions.
  

• John Main at Modernizing Medicine wrote "The Promise of Health IT." John is essentially asserting that in order for Health IT to continue to move forward patients need to start to take on more personal responsibility for their health through the use of technology. John points out that this movement began with the passing of the HITECH Act but despite the fiscal incentive to develop new technology people have yet to catch on to the importance of using that technology to collect data on their personal physical well-being. The rest of the piece simply speaks to the advantages that come from having a large amount of personal healthcare data.
  

• Olivia Goodwin of the Medical Tourism Association wrote "Patient Engagement: Can Age-Old Question be Solved Online?" This piece talks about the importance of the healthcare industry switching from paper to digital and general failure of the populace to take accountability for their personal health by aiding in this process. Olivia then goes on to point out many of the advantages a fully digital healthcare system would bring. With the emergence of new technology, specifically smart phones, people already have the hardware in their hands that is necessary to make this a reality. They simply need to put forth the effort.
  

• Laurance Stuntz at the Massachusetts eHealth Institute submitted the post "Mass Appeal for Health IT: How Innovative Health technologies are Transforming Care in the Commonwealth." Laurance begins the article by asserting that Health IT is directly benefiting Massachusetts’ economy and the importance of Health IT in Commonwealth. He then goes on to speak specifically to the issue of switching from paper to electronic health records (EHR’s). Laurance then gives a few specific examples of patients with extremely complicated treatment plans that might not be possible or advisable unless the patients’ records are electronic. The piece concludes by pointing out that Massachusetts can save a lot of money by having better patient follow-up care which with the embracement of EHR’s , will follow naturally.
  

• James Tcheng, MD, Chair of the Informatics and Health Information Technology Task Force at The American College of Cardiology, wrote "What’s Next for Meaningful Use?" Dr. Tcheng speaks to the fact that cardiology is the leader in terms of qualifying for incentive payments as part of the Electronic Healthcare Incentive (EHR) program. Despite this fact, Dr. Tcheng writes that there is still a long way to go for cardiologists, specifically regarding the implantation of the second phase of the EHR program in early 2014. Dr. Tcheng contends that unless there is a change in the law those in the healthcare industry who do not implent EHR’s, even cardiologists, will face reduction in their Medicaid payments. Essentially, he is approaching the belief that EHR’s are essential for the betterment of the healthcare community from an angle other then patient comfort/recidivism.
  

• Sunny Singh, CEO of Edifecs, wrote "Health IT’s $200 Billion Savings Proposition[pdf]." Sunny points out the importance continuing the growth of the healthcare industry by reducing administrative waste. Sunny contends that health insurers are the crux of the solution as a single-average insurer could save $60 million annually by embracing modern technology and streamlining how the process healthcare information. Simply switching to electronic billing will make a clear and measurable difference in costs. Sunny concludes by reiterating the importance of continual healthcare growth and that this is only one way in which to further the industry.
  

• You will absolutely want to take a look over on HIStalk where healthcare technology entrepreneur Kyle Samani wrote "Healthcare IT Donuts." The post begins with a photo of a whiteboard that equates various social networking sites with some metaphor of a donut. Kyle takes this same idea and applies it to the Healthcare IT world; writing a donut metaphor for various Healthcare IT companies. Although it is humorous, it is essentially a photo followed by bullet points.
  

• Jon Mertz wrote "What is the Value of Health IT? Data Freedom." In this piece Jon provides two bullet pointed paragraphs; one defining Health IT and the other defining Data freedom. Although, the title poses an interesting question and plausible answer, Jon fails to articulate the correlation between the two.
  

• Frank Irving, Editor at Medical Practice Insider, wrote "Mostashari’s thoughts on HIT value for office-based physicians." Frank was on the call where Tom Sullivan interviewed National Health IT Coordinator Farzad Mostashari, MD. For his question Frank asked how physicians benefit from the use of health information technology aside from the EHR Incentive Program. Mostashari initially provided a few stock answer statistics but then pointed out that through the integration of EHR physicians will be able to focus on treatments for entire populations rather than being restricted to individuals.
  

• The Commonwell Health Alliance wrote up "The Value of Health IT." This piece immediately asserts IT solutions are beneficial in the IT community and that given the grandiose nature of the transition there are bound to be frustrations and roadblocks (Affordable Care Act, ICD-10 etc) . Given the difficult nature of these roadblocks and the necessity of continuing healthcares transition into the full embracement of technology and EHR’s , this piece contends that suppliers and providers need to focus on interoperability. The piece concludes with an interesting comparison drawn between the transition from cell phone to smart phone and the transition the health care industry is going through today.
  

• VoiceFirst Solutions submitted "Healthcare CIOs are raising the bar on 5 key healthcare metrics by leveraging mobile, voice-driven technology solutions at the patient’s bedside." the bloggers from VoiceFirst Solutions offers examples of how CIOS are honing in on 5 key patient care metrics, encouraging their providers to utilize mobile, voice-driven technology to improve the face-to-face time with patients. The advancements in this technology space show how health IT can foster better in-person relationships during the patient/provider consultation.
  

NHIT Week Day Five

• Steven Posnac, the Director Federal Policy Division at ONC, wrote a ,b>VERY IMPORTANT,/b> post called "6 Things you need to know about Meaningful Use and EHR Certification in 2014." Steven has written a six question, itemized FAQ for the 2014 EHR reporting period for Meaningful Use. Steven notes that 2014 is the final year Medicare eligible professionals (EP) can receive incentive payments through Meaningful Use. Steven also speaks to the direct correlation between 2014 Meaningful Use performance and the 2016 Medicare payment adjustments.

• Fred Bazzoli, Senior Director of Communications at CHIME, wrote "A Decade of Progress with HIT, But Patients Are Counting on More." Fred begins this piece by claiming that the healthcare industry is in the midst of a crisis and that health IT is only part of the solution. He then articulates his fear that although the healthcare industry has made progress since 2004, it is not enough. Fred then links back to a prior column he wrote in 2004 for Healthcare IT News.

• Michael Burger, Senior Consultant at Point-of-Care Partners "The Value of Health IT: Healthier and Longer Living Citizens." Michael provides a unique perspective on the value of health IT in the future. Rather than following the trend of accentuating the fiscal benefits that health IT provides, Michael contends that the most important change health IT can bring to the healthcare industry is the enablement of principles articulated within the Hippocratic Oath. According to Michael the focus really is on advancing population health under the premise that, “…a healthier citizen is a less costly citizen.”

• Angela Dunn wrote over on the HL7 Standards Blog "Growth of Quantified Self, Part 4: The Future of Health Design." where she discusses the growth of the Quantified Self movement and demonstrates how health IT can begin to merge patient-generated health information with provider expertise to create new models of health design, facilitate better decision-making, and improve lives.

• Jessica Clifton, Product Marketing Manager at Billian’s Health Data wrote "The Provider, Personal & Public Value of Health IT." Jessica details three main areas that she believes health IT offers the greatest value for providers, patients and the public at large: streamlined care and workflow efficiency; paradox of patient engagement (ex. educated but convenience-driven); and moving from reactive to proactive (ex. predictive analytics).

• Jennifer Dennard Social Media Director at Billian(@SmyrnaGirl)over at EMR and EHR wrote "The Internet of Everything Puts New Face Value on HIT" Jennifer asserts that the value of health IT has increased exponentially in the sense that what is defined by “health IT” is much broader than ever before. She predicts that one day, IT will automatically be integrated with healthcare because of the “Internet of Everything.” She credits this idea to a recent policy memo she read by Michael Mandel and the Progressive Policy Institute.

• Equicare Health submitted the post "Better Communication For All." Equicare Health bloggers single out communication as the single most important feature that IT contributes to healthcare. To celebrate NHIT Week, the bloggers delve into the benefits of improved communication for 5 different stakeholders in the healthcare spectrum.

• Peter Ots of CHIME wrote "What is the value of HL7 to health IT?" Peter focuses on the value of health IT through HL7, specifically the IHE Newborn Admission Notification Information (NANI) Profile, which he believes is just the beginning of what HL7 can do to revolutionize patient-centric healthcare. NANI provides hospitals the means to automate the creation and transmission of newborn admission information, and then send it in real time to multiple public health programs.
  

• Davida Dinerm from Schwartz MSL wrote "NHIT Week Survey: What Health IT Topics are Top of Mind for Influencers?." This post highlights a results from a poll of IT influencers, offering statistics regarding the impact social media has on healthcare IT (positive), confidence in the implementation of the second phase of Meaningful Use, and the future of EHR’s. The post concludes with figures around the fact that many in the industry are still working toward thoughtful application of health IT.
  

• Gilbertson and David Wayne, Practice Director of Analytics Consulting and Performance Improvement Advisor at Lumdex submitted "Healthcare IT: Looking to the Future." This piece addresses the value investing in health IT brings to the healthcare industry as a whole. Gus and David point out that health IT solutions can provide real-time data which benefits not only the physicians but the patients as well. The article then concludes by speaking to the importance of continual investment in innovative health IT.
  

• Joseph Cermin, the President/Founder of Viztek, wrote over at Applied Radiology the post "Imaging: You ain’t seen the evolution yet." Joseph discusses the advantages that will follow with the continued advancement of healthcare technology. Joseph’s contends that in order to understand where the radiology business is heading, one must understand where overall technology is going, offering his predictions for the latter.
  

• Lauren Wiseman, MSN, Clinical Application Specialist at the Central Illinois Health Information Exchange wrote the aptly titled "National Health IT Week" post which offers her perspective on how health IT contributes to improving patient care, specifically via enabling patient engagement and how patient-driven data from this engagement can be integrated into the system via health information exchange (HIE).
  

Previewing HIMSS National Health IT Week Blog Carnival

HIMSS has announced their second annual National Health IT Week Blog Carnival which will run from September 16-20. I am honored to be asked to host this year's Blog Carnival during National Health IT Week on behalf of HIMSS. I expect there are going to be some great posts, as we have a passionate community who will be able to promote the value of health IT in helping to achieve the triple aim: Improving the patient experience of care; Improving the health of populations; and reducing the cost of healthcare.

Members of the health IT community are invited to write some new and original posts that answer the question: "What’s the value of health IT?" Bloggers should post between Monday, September 16 and Thursday, September 19. HIMSS and I will review each submission and publish round up posts on ahier.net. We're not looking for sales pitches so try to keep them non-promotional and focus on the health IT trends of the year. After you have published the post during National Health IT Week then send the link to HIMSS@shiftcomm.com for review and addition to the carnival.

There will be several National Health IT Week events in Washington, D.C., including:

• The Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC) will hold the 3rd Annual Consumer Health IT Summit to learn about public and private sector led advancements to equip and empower patients to better manage their health in a digital era.
• The 12th Annual HIMSS Policy Summit will explore how we can better engage patients through meaningful use and the road to safety regulations. I plan on attending this event.
• The Childhood Cancer Caucus will highlight federal efforts to combat childhood cancer, as part of National Childhood Cancer month.
• An interactive policy forum sponsored by the Bipartisan Policy Center will look at key technologies and trends that are ushering in the era of personalized medicine.

Keep and eye on the National Health IT Week website to stay aware of all the events. HIMSS is also providing a social media strategy toolkit for use during National Health IT Week, including some very cool images you can download HERE to post on your blog or use to change your profile image. They also provide some great advice on how to leverage social media for National Health IT Week.

We'll be using the hashtag #NHITWeek so even if you don't write a blog you can help get the word out and join in the tweeting. Also, Jennifer Dennard (@SmyrnaGirl) will be hosting a #HITchicks tweetchat on September 19th during National Health IT Week, and stay tuned because there will be a number of opportunities to participate in Tweetchats, Google Plus Hangouts, LinkedIn discussions, and other social media platforms during the week.

For more information on the Blog Carnival, please contact: himss@shiftcomm.com.
For more information on NHIT Week, please visit: http://www.healthitweek.org

President Clinton on Health IT at HIMSS 2013

Former President Bill Clinton’s keynote on March 6th at the 2013 HIMSS Annual Conference & Exhibition ranged from politics to economics, and from climate change to health information technology. I was very fortunate as part of the Healthcare Transformation Project to have front row seats, so I have a few clips below where he specifically highlights the critical importance of health IT to transforming our healthcare systems. One of the tweets streaming by during his talk (there was a LOT of tweeting going on during #HIMSS13 :) was this one from @cascadia:

Bill Clinton no correlation between cost and quality of care- driver is quantity of procedures #HIMSS13 twitpic.com/c96cpc
— Sherry Reynolds (@Cascadia) March 6, 2013

So first up and very exciting for me, early in the talk he came right out with praise for the work the HIMSS Healthcare Transformation Project is doing and the commitment from HIMSS to support this important work. He also showed gratitude for the partnership of Clinton Health Matters Initiative (CHMI) with Verizon and GE.

He then went on to discuss how healthcare information technology can help with lowering costs and engaging patients. He drew an analogy between the success of relief efforts during the tsunami as well as the earthquake in Haiti, and how technology can be used in similar ways to not only improve healthcare quality, but also health access.

Next he discussed how important systems are for success. Information and communications technologies and systems-engineering tools will be used to help realize vision of a patient-centered healthcare system. He said, "At some point in the life of every nation, almost every major system  gets long in the tooth." He then went on to explain the critical importance of some of the changes which are necessary.

He then later went in to some of the work being done by CHMI, as well as the Alliance for a Healthier Generation in combating obesity. Their agreement with the American Beverage Association has contributed to a 90% reduction in calories from beverages shipped to schools between the 2004-2010 school years, according to a report published in the American Journal of Public Health. The private market approach and the willingness of the business community to collaborate in the area of reducing obesity has had some stunning results. There was one hilarious moment where Mr. Clinton accidentally said "there has to be a way to sell drugs, ummmm, drinks in school and still make money." He then recovered nicely with "some people think sugar is a drug."

In one of my favorite moments President Clinton stated how much he liked Blue Button. Blue Button epitomizes the idea that people should be able to access and download their own health information. He also spoke of the importance of price transparency. He cited Pennsylvania which every year publishes comparative data on health procedures, including how much they cost and the measurable results.

There was a lot happening at the HIMSS conference this year, so keep your eye out for more posts on some interesting topics.

HIMSS13: Healthcare Transformation Project

Last year HIMSS became a member of the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) and committed to develop and implement the Healthcare Transformation Project (HTP). By fostering partnerships, providing strategic advice, and driving resources toward the adoption of the best uses of IT for health and healthcare, the HTP will address significant challenges in American healthcare. Through this project, HIMSS will harness the experiences and energy of early IT adopters to help recruit, activate, and convene a community of senior executive healthcare leaders who are well-positioned to develop and execute initiatives that realize the potential of IT to improve the way in which healthcare is delivered in the United States. Inspired by CGI, HIMSS will encourage participants to make commitments to their action plans. "Through the Healthcare Transformation Project, HIMSS has established its Commitment to Action as part of CGI. We know improving healthcare with the best use of IT takes a collaborative effort, one that senior executives can be part of through this HIMSS community," said H. Stephen Lieber, CAE, HIMSS President and CEO.

In getting ready for the HIMSS 2013 conference I said that one of the most exciting things for me this year is HTP. HTP The is an invitation only initiative created exclusively for senior healthcare provider executives. This is an initiative intended to promote thought leadership and provide opportunities for an open exchange of ideas and networking for the entire leadership team, not just IT executives. As you can see from the agenda, the first day was pretty exciting.

Unfortunately, Patrick Buchanan was not able to make it to HIMSS due to some surgery, but he was more than adequately replaced in the opening keynote by Mary Matalin in a very interesting and friendly joust with Donna Brazile. They discussed the current, and often dysfunctional, political environment and how this impacts the healthcare environment. Mary, is a conservative who served Presidents Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush and George W. Bush made some excellent points about free market reforms that could be undertaken. Donna, who is liberal, and a Democratic political strategist, an adjunct professor, author, syndicated columnist, television political commentator gave a very down to earth and hilarious . This was a perfect start to the day as we wrestled with how we can best use technology to transform our healthcare system in this politically charged environment.

Next we had an excellent presentation from Robert Tagalicod the Director of the Office of E-Health Standards and Services at CMS, which among other things enforces the Transactions and Code Sets and National Identifiers (Employer and Provider identifiers) regulations of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). Most of the time I hear his testimony to the HIT Policy Committee on the EHR Incentive Program. At HTP he gave our community some insights into some organization structures within CMS and the kind of strategic thinking that is going on at CMS. He described how they are designing an architecture so that providers and other stakeholders have a single source of information on coordinating efforts toward implementing ICD-10, EHRs and meaningful use, operating standards, electronic quality measurement, and payment models. The Office of Enterprise Management serves as CMS' primary resource for expertise on project management and integration and oversees the Office of Information Products and Data Analytics, the Office of Enterprise Business, Office of Enterprise Performance, as well as the Office of E-Health Standards and Services. The hope is that he adoption of ICD-10, operating rules, and clinical standards will facilitate electronic data exchange and put information in the hands of patients and their caregivers in a way that has never been seen before. His presentation was thoughtful and engaging and led into some great discussion around the tables.

We then moved into the workshop phase of the day which was facilitated by Kenneth R Jennings, PhD the Managing Partner at Third River Partners and author whose most recent book is 10,00 Horses: How Leaders Harness Raw Potential for Extraordinary Results.My hope is that with the incredible thought leadership around the room, we can move into some action leadership as the initiative moves forward. There was a great sense of shared purpose in the room and it will be very exciting to see the commitments to action that are undertaken.

Then in the evening we relaxed at a wonderful cocktail reception and had a fabulous dinner with a keynote presentation from Jeb Bush, former Governor of the State of Florida and the brother of President George W. Bush. There has been a lot of speculation that he may be a candidate for President in 2016, and he just that day had come out with a new book Immigration Wars. He was very gracious, and allowed me to interview him, and then hung out with everyone for an hour before dinner. In his keynote he discussed economic policy, energy policy, touched on education and then dove into healthcare.

He made some strong points that it would be good to give greater flexibility to the states on implementation of the Affordable Care Act. He did say that this is now the law of the land so we need to find solutions that fit within the framework of health reform. One area where he thought flexibility would help is the idea of having Mediciad and SCHIP plans offered on the health insurance exchanges. He reasoned that this would provide a broad base for a pool of healthy people to support the exchanges.

He also said, "I am depending on health IT to help save the American healthcare system. It is only by using technology to create a platform for innovation that many of these difficult problems can be solved." He then went on to say that open source software should be part of the solution. I seemed to be the only one who cheered this prospect but I was very happy that he saw the value. It was pretty incredible he was able to show such depth of insight and understanding of healthcare and information technology. I was very happy to finish the day as it began - with strong consensus that health It is an issue with bipartisan support.

Get Ready for HIMSS 2013

The HIMSS Annual Conference & Exhibition for 2013 is right around the corner so I will begin writing some posts to cover the event. This year looks to be another incredible conference! With keynote presentations from Eric Topol and President Bill Clinton there is no shortage of excitement. There are numerous educational opportunities and of course the HIMSS Social Media Center will be brimming with activity. The new Meaningful Use Experience is something you won't want to miss, and you must stop by the Interoperability Showcase. Data liquidity is what we need and interoperability is a top priority if we truly want to transform our healthcare system. And for anyone interested in the Direct Project there is also a little known session that you need to be aware of:

Title: Beyond Certification: Making Meaningful Use Stage 2 Exchange Requirements Work in the Real World
Date: Tuesday, March 5, 2013
Time: 3:30 p.m. – 5:30 p.m. CT
Location: HIMSS13 Annual Conference, Room 293

The agenda for this session will include:

• Understanding and leveraging MU Stage 2 optional transports – a roundtable discussion with EHR vendors and health information service providers (HISPs)
• Creating scalable trust for Direct – an overview and discussion of the conceptual and technical approach to enabling cross-vendor/cross-HISP exchange for patients and providers using Direct

One of the very exciting things for me this year is the Healthcare Transformation Project (HTP). HTP The is an invitation only initiative created exclusively for senior healthcare provider executives. This is an initiative intended to promote thought leadership and provide opportunities for an open exchange of ideas and networking for the entire leadership team, not just IT executives. There will be robust discussion between the health IT and the non-IT professionals about how best to use IT to transform healthcare. Through roundtable discussions, educations sessions, and networking events we will develop actionable plans that will result in real results in our local communities.

HIMSS has become a member of the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) and HTP is the HIMSS commitment to action as part of CGI. In fact, HTP is implementing CGI's "Commitment to Action" model, and senior healthcare executives will have the opportunity to commit to taking actionable, measurable steps in their organizations that will make a real difference. This will transcend the HIMSS conference itself and be an ongoing initiative. We will document our commitments by specifying actionable, measurable steps they will take to make a transformative difference. Then from the semi-annual Virtual Conference & Exhibition to periodic conversational webinars, blogs and podcasts, we will have opportunities to gather knowledge and share stories with others in the HTP community throughout the year.

At HTP participants will make these commitments that will translate goals into meaningful and measurable results in their own organization or community. HTP will serve as a forum for healthcare leaders to create and share their commitments to action, with the promise of transforming their organization and community. As you can imagine, I am pretty thrilled about participating in this and will be writing more on the topic as some of the projects bear fruit.

Quantifying Myself With Fitbit

There are lot of chances to win prizes in Las Vegas, Nevada at the 2012 Annual HIMSS Conference. One of these will require me to track my walking .Practice Fusion, the free (ad supported) web based EHR, and Fitbit are sposnoring a contest between myself and Don Fluckinger. We will be competing for the most number of steps taken on Tuesday, February 21 for a chance to win a charitable donation of $500 made by Practice Fusion in our name through Givewell.org. We are also taking side bets on who reaches 30,000 steps first on Tuesday. That is a LOT of walking, but as past HIMSS conferences have shown, there is a bit of walking ahead of us.

With the Fitbit Ultra your information is wirelessly uploaded  to the web so you can gain deeper insight into your daily or monthly fitness and sleep levels with free online graphs and charts. Fitbit offers free iPhone and Android apps so you can track your progress and log food, work-outs and more on the go. It also has a pressure altimeter, so it can determine when you're climbing stairs or hills. This is my first foray into self-tracking, and I am very interested in seeing if or how my behavior changes. Fred Trotter in "The Rise of the Programmable Self" postulated the following formula: Quantifying your changes + motivational hacks = programmable self. As I'm wandering around Las Vegas I'll be pondering how I can use these tools in interesting ways to make positive changes.

You have the chance to win a Fitbit yourself at HIMSS with a value of $99.00. Here are the contest rules: On Tuesday February 21, tweet your response to “Who will win the Fitbit challenge? Don or Brian?” using hashtags #fitbit #HIMSS12 and @PracticeFusion. One participant will be randomly selected to win on Tuesday. No matter who wins, everyone is a winner with $500 going to Givewell.org and a raising of the awareness of self monitoring. Below is a promotional video that describes the Fitbit and may prompt you to send a tweet :-)

 

Ready... Set... HIMSS!

I will spend some time this weekend getting ready for HIMSS. The theme for this year's event is "Change Is Everywhere...Opportunity Is Here." Unlike many of my colleagues, I have few parties planned and am trying to keep my schedule fairly flexible. I do have half a dozen important meetings, plenty of chats planned, and lots of people I can't wait to meet in real life. There are a couple parties I've accepted invitations to, and will probably find my way to a few more. But for the me, one overall purpose of attending this event is to participate in the "Meet the Bloggers Event" at the Social Media Center, and also to hear some of the great keynote addresses, while making important connections and hopefully seeing some very interesting product launches. I've been offered a couple behind the scenes looks at some new products, so expect some interesting information to come from the event.

I expect some of the scheduled highlights (besides the social media events) to be Wednesday March 3, when both Federal CTO Aneesh Chopra and National Coordinator for Health Information Technology David Blumenthal, MD, MPP, will give keynote addresses. There are also going to be quite a few ONC staffers on hand and even some folks from CMS. This year is likely the biggest year for health IT in history, and there is certainly quite a bit of interest in meaningful use of EHRs, HIE, RECs, SHARP, Beacon Communities and on and on. I expect this HIMSS will have a distinct government focus mingled in with the usual private sector thrust.

And of course there are the exhibits - practically every conceivable vendor even remotely related to health IT will be on hand to hawk their wares and promote their products. I will take a couple days and announce my unbiased impression of the best I find. Since I make no money doing this and do not get paid by any vendor or HIMSS you can be confident that I will be my usual honest and slightly snarky self. This should be an interesting week and I'll try to keep the information flowing...

HIMSS Publishes 'Meaningful Use' Definitions

On Monday, April 27, HIMSS published its definitions of ‘meaningful use of certified EHR technologies,’ as outlined in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA). HIMSS sent a cover letter, plus two definitions: 1) meaningful users of certified EHR technologies and 2) meaningful use for hospitals, to the National Coordinator of Health IT and the Acting CMS Commissioner, within the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)

ARRA calls for multiple years of Medicare incentive payments to hospitals and physicians who meet the requirements of “meaningful use of certified EHR technology” (an electronic health record). To be eligible for the incentive payments, hospitals and physicians must use the technology in a meaningful manner; to exchange electronic health information to improve the quality of care; and, submit clinical quality measures – and other measures – as selected by the Secretary of HHS. Further, hospitals and physicians must meet the definition within a specified time frame, which as described in ARRA, must be made increasingly stringent over time by the Secretary.

Approved by the HIMSS Board of Directors, the definitions resulted from consensus-building effort with input from HIMSS members (73 percent of which work in end-user settings), and the public at-large. HIMSS represents more than 20,000 individual members and 350 corporate members.

In summary, HIMSS recommends the following:

1. To ensure continuity, recognize CCHIT as the certifying body of EHRs.
2. To achieve incremental maturation of “meaningful use,” adopt metrics that can be reasonably captured and reported beginning in FY11/2011,* and then made increasingly stringent using intervals of not less than two years. HIMSS’ definitions include specific metrics to enact, in phases, over a multi-year period.
3. To bridge existing gaps in interoperability of health information, coordinate with HITSP and IHE to create new harmonized standards and implementation guides.
4. Reconcile the gap between “certified EHR technologies,” “best of breed,” and “open source” technologies.

As noted in the letter, HIMSS believes that the Act has tremendous potential to improve the quality, safety, and cost-effectiveness of patient care.

• Read the HIMSS definition for meaningful use of technology in hospitals
• Read the HIMSS definition for meaningful users of EHR technology
• Read the HIMSS letter sent to ONC and CMS

*ARRA requires the hospital-focused definition to be effective FY11 (October 1, 2010). For meaningful users (physicians), the definition must be effective January1, 2011.