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GCN Home > 11/07/05 issue

HHS lays out a plan to have e-health records on the table by next June

By Mary Mosquera, GCN Staff

Health and Human Services secretary Mike Leavitt and national health IT coordinator David Brailer have spent a lot of time talking about what health IT systems could do for medicine. Recently, they got a glimpse of what it can look like.

Leavitt and Brailer observed a District of Columbia physician conduct a heart patient’s checkup using an electronic health record and a laptop. (Yes, they obtained permission from the patient to see personal health information, in accordance with Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act rules.)

From a list of patients he was to see that day, Dr. Ryan Bosch clicked on the patient’s name, opening a screen with a variety of categories.

An assistant took the patient’s blood pressure, which was automatically entered in the health record. The software put the data in the correct field so Bosch could access it to perform trending analysis.

Bosch next clicked on a panel to view the patient’s history of cholesterol measures and a list of medications, in order to discuss a revision in dosages. Bosch typed his treatment orders and patient comments into the record as they were talking.

“It’s had a profound effect on quality,” said Bosch, who conducted the checkup at George Washington University Medical Faculty Associates in Washington.

By next June, electronic health record systems will be available that are certified as capable of exchanging data with other providers when standards are decided. They will also meet criteria for basic clinical doctors’ offices functions, said Mark Leavitt, director of the Certification Commission for Health Information Technology of Chicago, the nonprofit organization in charge of establishing the certification process.

The first set of interoperability standards also will be ready next summer.

HHS is focused on “low-hanging fruit” to move the health IT agenda forward, while laying a foundation for the long-term infrastructure, Brailer said during a recent telebriefing.

“[I]f the American public doesn’t see it, feel it, touch it and taste it, it simply is never going to get to where it needs to be,” he said.

HHS last month awarded $17.3 million in contracts to harmonize standards, create a process for health IT product certification and assess the variations in state privacy laws.

More news on related topics: Health IT, Management, IT Management



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