As part of the HIMSS EHRVA commitment to contributing a unique voice to the healthcare industry, the group provides a comment on topical industry issues. These statements are provided in the interests clarifying EHRVA perspective, and not intended to be definitive within the industry.
Support National Standards to
Promote/Adopt/
Improve Interoperability
In Electronic Health Records (PDF)
EHRVA Privacy and Security Whitepaper (PDF)
CCHIT - HITSP Readiness Survey Results (PDF)
EHRVA response to ONC re: proposed Stark rules
Position: CCHIT position statement on Use Cases
Position: AHIC Use Case Response
Inpatient – Ambulatory Connectivity for ONC/AHIC
CCHIT ARTICLE:
HIMSS EHRVA Ensures the Vendor Voice is Heard by CCHIT
Position: EHRVA Interoperability Roadmap V2
Position: EHRVA Web Statement for 6-5-06 Roadmap Discussion
Position: HIMSS EHRVA Statement on Standards for Patient Data Exchange
Position: HIMSS EHRVA Statement Regarding Certification Assessments
Position: White Paper on Interoperability HIMSS EHR Vendor Association
EHRVA Statement to OIM on ONC Standards Activities
EHRVA response to ONC re: proposed Stark rules
On behalf of the HIMSS Electronic Health Record Vendors Association (EHRVA), we would like to follow-up on our discussion in New Orleans regarding industry concerns about the de facto 12-month Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology (CCHIT) certification cycle required by the interoperability deeming provisions of the recent EHR-related Physician Self-Referral Safe Harbor and AKS relaxation rules (aka “Stark” Relaxation).
Position: CCHIT position statement on Use Cases
At our August 14, 2007 EHRVA all-member meeting, we reviewed an inpatient/outpatient use-case that EHRVA members believe improves interoperability in typical point-to-point information exchange scenarios that occur between inpatient and ambulatory EHR systems. This use case is also scaleable to the interoperability specifications for connection to the Nationwide Health Information Network. It reflects the reality that certified EHR systems are more likely to connect to other ambulatory or inpatient systems in the near-term, before there are opportunities to connect to a health information exchange. The need for this type of interoperability solution is further heightened by the interoperability requirements set forth in the recent Stark Safe Harbor for EHR donation. This use-case is also consistent with our July 20, 2007 letter to Dr. Robert Kolodner (see attached), National Coordinator for HIT.
Position: AHIC Use Case Response
On behalf of the HIMSS Electronic Health Record Vendor Association (EHRVA), whose members represent the leading ambulatory and enterprise EHR system providers, we request that the American Health Information Community (AHIC) give due consideration at the July 31st meeting to use-cases that provide the greatest near-term impact on quality, safety and efficiency of health care delivery using health information technology (HIT).
Inpatient – Ambulatory Connectivity for ONC/AHIC
The EHRVA Standards and Interoperability WG submits this proposal for approval by the full EHRVA membership to form the basis for an EHRVA position to ONC/AHIC and to inform CCHIT’s on-going EHR interoperability environment scan.
CCHIT ARTICLE:
HIMSS EHRVA Ensures the Vendor Voice is Heard by CCHIT
The Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology (CCHIT) has made significant progress over the past two years toward its goal of creating a credible, sustainable product certification program to accelerate the nationwide adoption of health information technology. The HIMSS Electronic Health Record Vendors Association (EHRVA) has been an active participant throughout the development process to ensure the vendor perspective is reflected in CCHIT’s certification program.
Position: EHRVA Interoperability Roadmap V2
The EHRVA Interoperability Roadmap supports the national goal of interoperable electronic health records and provides a pragmatic, logical plan that will succeed when adopted and implemented by key stakeholders. Based on proven methods and existing technology, the Roadmap considers a value-based approach that provides immediate benefits and outlines concrete steps to a future state in which the exchange of healthcare information across all care settings is supported in patient-centric manner. We provide this Roadmap to mobilize the leadership of healthcare organizations, information technology vendors and other relevant stakeholders to collectively deliver on the vision by incorporating this Roadmap into their plans.
Download Interoperability Presentation
Comments and questions on the Interoperability Roadmap are welcome. They should be sent to: garnett@himss.org.
Position: EHRVA Web Statement for 6-5-06 Roadmap Discussion
HIMSS Electronic Health Record Vendors Association (EHRVA) hosted a broad group of health IT industry stakeholders in an EHRVA Interoperability Roadmap Roundtable on June 5, 2006 during National Health IT Week in Washington, D.C. The purpose of the meeting was to:
- Help health IT industry stakeholders understand the Roadmap and its benefits
- Discuss how stakeholder’s models are or could be accommodated within the Roadmap
- Clarify any issues and verbalize any obstacles to adoption
- Propose changes to be made to the Roadmap
- Set a deadline to finalize the Roadmap and gain endorsement
- Confirm support for publication and determine best means of working together
- Provide an interactive demonstration of elements of the roadmap
Position: HIMSS EHRVA Statement on Standards for Patient Data Exchange
The HIMSS EHR Vendor Association (EHRVA) supports the adoption of a single standard for the exchange of patient clinical data to meet use-case requirements of healthcare providers, to significantly accelerate interoperability among EHRs and other systems, and to provide the Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology (CCHIT) with an industry-proven solution to support the certification process.
The EHRVA believes that the establishment of a single standard for the exchange of patient medical summaries during transitions of care will ensure full and universal adoption by the industry in the most efficient and effective way. Characteristics of such a standard include:
- Use of a single XML schema and syntax;
- A content model defined and vetted by health professionals who utilize the content in their clinical practices;
- Extensibility to other document types and discrete data.
In addition to standards, we believe there needs be a framework that allows clinicians, vendors and standards development organizations to select, test and implement standards via integration profiles that meet use-case requirements of health professionals. We recommend the initial domains of Patient Care Coordination, Pharmacy and Quality as being significant for the advancement of interoperability. We further recommend that the standards-based interoperability integration framework successfully implemented by Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise (IHE) be utilized to accelerate the development of integration profiles in these domains.
Moreover, EHRVA supports of the role of CCHIT in establishing criteria for certification of EHR products, including establishing requirements for functionality and interoperability. We await the initial release of the CCHIT workgroups' findings and look forward to ongoing collaboration in the development of the roadmap for implementation.
Position: HIMSS EHRVA Statement Regarding Certification Assessments
The EHR Vendors Association (EHRVA) supports the CCHIT initiative to develop EHR certification criteria and a supporting process to promote the broad adoption of HIT by healthcare providers. These organizations, particularly physician practices, are asking for guidance to ensure that their selected EHR system will provide an acceptable baseline of functionality, security and interoperability. To provide this guidance and to prevent the certification process from becoming burdensome for both provider organizations and software vendors, it is important for the industry to adopt and support uniform certification criteria and a standard process to achieve certification. While there may be organizations which provide services to vendors or providers to assess certification-readiness of particular software products, EHRVA does not sanction any of these services and we suggest that our customers use such services with caution until certification criteria and processes are finalized.
As the nation embarks on the widespread deployment of EHRs, a variety of concomitant challenges and barriers must be addressed.
-Statement: Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology
