News
HITSP Helps Make the Business Case for Standards
The Healthcare Information Technology Standards Panel continues to operate so that its thousands of volunteers remain engaged in their successful efforts to harmonize standards.
CHICAGO (February 15, 2010) – Urging HITSP volunteers to “be strong advocates for what needs to happen,” HITSP Chair John Halamka suggested that the business case for standards does exist…with meaningful use. Speaking at the Jan. 25 HITSP Panel Meeting in Arlington, Va., he also noted that “patient engagement” and the “care aspect of (standard) infrastructure must be maintained.”
During the most recent HITSP panel meeting, other volunteers offered their support of the work of HITSP. Rachel Block of the New York State Health Department lauded the benefits of working with HITSP.
“Starting with HITSP standards was a great opportunity because they were already vetted and more advanced than what we could do on our own. We wanted to build from national standards,” said Ms. Block.
Liesa Jenkins is Executive Director of CareSpark, a non-profit group in Northeast Tennessee and Southwest Virginia that shares information regarding medications, immunizations, lab and radiology results, diagnoses and treatment plans. CareSpark has used HITSP constructs and Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise profiles as a part of the early decision processes since its beginning in 2006. This has “allowed CareSpark to enable connections between electronic health systems with reduced costs and timelines for implementation.” CareSpark is now expanding to serve Knoxville and other parts of Virginia.
With HITSP’s introduction in October 2005, the American National Standards Institute worked collaboratively with strategic partners that included the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society, the Advanced Technology Institute, and Booz Allen Hamilton to carry out its collaborative standards harmonization efforts. The current contract from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and funded by the Office of the National Coordinator, under which ANSI operates, has been extended through April 30, 2010.
HITSP will hold monthly informational update calls, participate in the HIMSS10 Interoperability Showcase, and work with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services on a Quality Data demonstration project. The HITSP Web site, at www.hitsp.org will remain accessible with information about the ongoing harmonization efforts available and updated.
Harmonizing standards during the past five years has been a consensus-building activity where more than 900 public and private organizations joined together to ensure consistent information and data exchange in electronic health records, said Joyce Sensmeier, HIMSS Vice President, Informatics. “What seems as routine functionality of EHR systems demands that information on many different system components work together to share the information.”The number of HITSP Constructs tested nearly doubled at this year’s IHE North America Connectathon with 43 HITSP Constructs, compared to 24 in 2009. (A HITSP construct specifies how to integrate and constrain selected standards to meet the business needs of a Harmonization Request.) Quality measures that will be a component of meaningful use were a key part of the HITSP product testing activity this year. Clinical Data Interchange Standards Consortium (CDISC) and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) approached HITSP for harmonization of standards around clinical research and quality measurement. Some of these measures will be demonstrated at the HIMSS10 Showcase scenarios.
HITSP at HIMSS10 Interoperability Showcase: Continuing its standards harmonization efforts, HITSP also will be part of the HIMSS 2010 Interoperability Showcase where attendees can review and cross reference HITSP specifications with the 2011 Meaningful Use recommendations, HITSP products and national standards.
Standards Town Hall Meeting: Attendees at HIMSS10 also can attend the Standards Town Hall: Using Harmonized Standards in the Era of Meaningful Use"Town Hall Meeting on Tuesday, March 2, at 8:30 a.m. EST with John Halamka, MD, HITSP Chairman and CIO of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Chief Information Officer and Dean for Technology at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Halamka also shares his thoughts and answers questions about HITSP and interoperability in the future of U.S. healthcare during the HITSP eTown Hall on Jan. 22 from 1-2:30 p.m. EST.
LeRoy Jones, CISSP Chief Executive from GSI is the HITSP Program Manager. He will be speaking at the HIMSS10 Interoperability Showcase Theater on Monday, March 1, 4:45 – 5:10 p.m.
Read the news release on the 2010 IHE North America Connectathon.
Register for HIMSS10
Read more about HITSP.
Listen to: HITSP Panel Meeting Jan 25th 2010 audio
