Membership Committee
Chair – Justin T. Barnes, Greenway Medical Technologies
Vice Chair – Barbara Hobbs, MEDITECH
The Membership Committee manages membership criteria and materials; selection and election processes for the Board, Committees and Work Groups; new member recruitment and orientation; and annual and semiannual membership meeting planning.
Since the EHRVA began in November 2004 with 21 founding companies, we have doubled in size to 43 member companies as of December 2006. Our membership represents 96% of all EHRs deployed in the U.S. today. While celebrating such rapid 100% growth, we remain committed to maintaining the association’s integrity by preserving an equal balance of enterprise and ambulatory organizations in our Executive and Work Group representation.
We welcome the following companies that have joined the EHRVA in the past year:
Digital MD Systems
Healthcare Management Systems
MEDHOST
Medical Informatics Engineering
Medinformatix
Spring Medical Systems
The Poseidon Group
After working on November’s Executive Team and Work Group Chair elections and planning the annual member meeting, our efforts for 2007 will turn to maintaining great momentum building the EHRVA membership offering:
- Introduction of an Ambulatory Special Interest Group (SIG) to provide an open forum for all ambulatory member companies
- Implementation of New Member Orientation Sessions
- Recruitment of new member companies
- CCHIT-certified companies
- Companies recommended by current members
- Outreach to worldwide industry organizations to help shape a global approach for the EHRVA
We encourage all member companies to participate in an EHRVA Committee or Work Group—your involvement is essential to the continued success of our association!
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Acceleration / Adoption
Chair – Hugh Zettel, GE Healthcare
Vice Chair – Sonja Baro, McKesson
The Acceleration / Adoption Work Group defines strategies and executes tactical plans with a goal of reducingacknowledged barriers to health IT adoption. The Work Group focuses on outreach to key stakeholders including government organizations / associations, payors; provider groups / associations; other trade associations; medical associations / societies; and other groups. The Work Group is responsible for the rollout and multi-stakeholder collaboration of the EHRVA Interoperability Roadmap.
2006 has been an outstanding year for the EHRVA, as we continued our efforts to lay the foundation for achieving national EHR interoperability.
In June, the EHRVA hosted a multi-stakeholder review at National Health IT Week. We were the first to bring together such a varied group of industry stakeholders for a frank discussion about interoperability. In addition to demonstrating what the EHRVA has accomplished, this meeting served as a catalyst for the association’s involvement with a number of other events including the NCVHS NHIN testimony, CMS quality measures discussions and the NCHICA Interoperability Demo, which we co-hosted with IHE.
Version 2 of the EHRVA Interoperability Roadmap was approved by the full membership in October. This plan is the result of extensive collaboration, development and coordination with input from various health IT stakeholders. The Roadmap can be accessed at http://www.ehrva.org/docs/roadmap_v2c.pdf.
The Acceleration / Adoption Work Group will focus its efforts in 2007 on three primary areas:
- Interoperability
- Lead a market-backed focus on the basic steps to interoperability
- Act as an advisor to customers and industry
- Provide thought leadership to balance aligning w/ government initiatives vs. waiting for mandates
- Education and Advocacy
- Communicate with members on AHIC direction
- Increase customer awareness of growing government initiatives
- Advise stakeholders on appropriate content for certification
- EHRVA Interoperability Roadmap Contribution
- Update with AHIC / HITSP changes
- Provide input on the Quality Reporting perspective and other Roadmap phases
- Position EHR in relation to PHR and other health IT applications
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Communications
Chair – Paul Edge, Misys Healthcare Systems
Vice Chair – Judy Friedman, iMedica
Consultant – Julia Zarb, Zarb Consulting
The Communications Work Group positions the association, its members and its initiatives as leading the health IT industry during these fast-paced and critical times in the development and adoption of EHR.
The primary responsibility of the Communications Work Group is to develop and administer necessary strategic tools for the EHRVA to communicate with all stakeholders. We have worked diligently this year to maintain strong internal and external communication for the association, achieving this through a combination of collaborative input, public relations initiatives, and awareness and adoption activities.
Our efforts this year have supported three major EHRVA strategic goals:
- Interoperability
- Position vendor community as leader in defining interoperability implementation plans
- Establish EHRVA as knowledgeable source for healthcare market analysis
- Promote and educate stakeholders on the EHRVA Interoperability Roadmap and related activities
- Interoperability Roundtable at National Health IT Week
- EHRVA and IHE Interoperability Demo at NCHICA Annual Conference
- Certification
- Educate members and industry on EHRVA contribution to CCHIT
- Communicate vendor certification milestones
- Education and Advocacy
- Create forums and develop collateral material to educate members, media, government/industry influencers and communities, and providers on EHRVA goals and initiatives
- Build and strengthen relationships with industry organizations such as IHE, AMA, JCAHO and AHA
EHRVA members—make a 2007 New Year’s resolution you can easily keep! Increase your involvement with the EHRVA by joining our Work Group. We’d like to extend a warm welcome to the newest members of our team:
- Lynn Hudson, Companion Technologies
- Jack Smyth, Spring Medical Systems
- Mike Burger, Sage Software
- Charlene Underwood, Siemens
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Government Initiatives & Organizations
Chair - Charlie Jarvis, NextGen Healthcare Information Systems
Vice Chair - Rick Reeves, CPSI
The Government Initiatives & Organizations Work Group sets strategy for interaction and participation with established government and private sector initiatives related to EHR. This group will continue to drive CCHIT relations and responses.
The second year of our Work Group furthered the objectives of the first, as we concentrated on close alignment with CCHIT and proactive legislative outreach.
We proudly served as the voice of EHRVA members at CCHIT meetings and provided transparency into all aspects of the process. Our team collected member feedback, which we leveraged to compile consensus statements for submission to CCHIT.
The Work Group employed a multifaceted approach to legislative outreach: HIMSS Government Roundtable and HIMSS Advocacy and Public Safety Steering Committee participation; federal EHR initiatives tracking; legislative initiatives review and comment; education and outreach to specific legislators; and regular briefings for EHRVA members.
Moving into 2007, our group will work to advance the following:
- CCHIT relationship management
- Proposed federal legislative and regulatory advocacy
- Regulatory analysis, education and guidance
- Public Comment Phase III participation
- Legislative and organizational outreach responsibilities
- Enhanced reporting on congressional items
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Standards & Interoperability
Chair – Charles Parisot, GE Healthcare
Vice Chair – Davin Hill, MediNotes
The Standards & Interoperability Work Group evaluates all standards and third-party standards setting organizations and establishes a strategy for interacting with each. Initial interoperability projects have focused on HL7, CCR, RHIO, IHE, lab terminology and security standards.
As 2006 draws to a close, the Standards & Interoperability Work Group is working hard to prepare for several exciting initiatives slated for the new year. One of our biggest and most challenging projects will be tackling laboratory interoperability, which is a core issue affecting day-to-day EMR systems. We invite all members of the EHRVA to get involved with our efforts, beginning with interoperability messaging standards. We will then address topics such as lab history, message transport, and semantic interoperability and codification.
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Interoperability Roadmap Update
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. 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 the EHRVA Interoperability Roadmap
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Quality Initiatives
There is a national focus on achieving the ability to measure quality and facilitate measurement and quality improvement processes through EHR use. Charlene Underwood provides an overview of this focus and an update on how the EHRVA membership has been engaged in the process.
Transparency in Quality and Pricing Are Driving National Agenda
Much of the governmental efforts focused on health IT began when President Bush, in his 2004 State of the Union address, stated that he wanted most Americans to have interoperable EHRs within 10 years. Recently, Secretary Leavitt, together with President Bush’s executive order, has more clearly articulated HHS’ goal and strategy. The goal of HHS is to transform healthcare from a sector into a system of value-driven competition. There are four strategies that support achieving this goal:
- Connect the system by creating standards that will provide for interoperability
- Measure and publish quality metrics
- Group the care that is provided into “buckets” so that prices per unit can be compared
- Encourage the right behavior with financial incentives
Implementing these strategies will drive change in healthcare by organizing the market to compete on quality and price. It has been tried before, but it has failed because the largest payer—the federal government—did not engage. HHS has been clear that they plan to exercise their weight as the largest payer to make this happen, and we all know that other payers typically follow what Medicare does. Secretary Leavitt is passionate about this issue, and on more than one occasion we have heard him say that he believes our capacity to remain prosperous as a nation is dependent upon this change.
The executive order signed by President Bush on August 22, 2006, supports achieving the outlined strategies. This order directs federal agencies that sponsor federal health insurance programs to take the steps that Secretary Leavitt outlined: increase transparency in pricing and quality, encourage adoption of health IT standards, and develop and implement approaches that facilitate high quality and efficient care. What this means is that programs like Medicare and Medicaid are ordered to enact programs that require providers (hospitals, physicians, nursing homes) to adhere to public reporting standards for price and quality. It is likely that this will be tied to using health IT that is certified as interoperable to receive payment for services provided to Medicare and Medicaid patients.
EHRVA Participates in Advancing the National Agenda for Quality
EHRVA is involved in the definitional processes for the National Quality Agenda, and I participate on the AHIC Quality Work Group. Prior to that Work Group forming, the EHRVA Executive Committee was approached at HIMSS 2006 by AMA, CMS and NCQA to dialogue about how to engage vendors in quality measurement processes. Since that time, EHRVA membership has participated in the following efforts:
- Achieving Evidence-based Clinical Care: This effort is evaluating how to enable the provision of clinical care guidelines in a form that can be easily implemented by vendors providing clinical decision support capabilities to their customers. A recent meeting sponsored by AHRQ evaluated the implementation issues with current care algorithms.
- Achieving Evidence-based Quality Measurement Methodology: EHRVA members are participating in a Collaborative for Performance Measures Integration in EHR Systems. This collaborative includes AMA, CMS and NCQA. Two meetings have been held and two Work Groups have been formed to define how to best engage EHR vendors in the measurement definition and implementation processes. The results of the efforts of these Work Groups will be completed by HIMSS 2007. Sarah Corley, MD, NextGen, and Floyd Eisenberg, MD, MPH, Siemens, are co-chairs of these Work Groups.
As we support the transformation to a new system of healthcare, quality measurement will become a cornerstone and an imperative for our customers. EHRVA is involved now in preparation to meet our customers’ needs for quality reporting and improvement capabilities.
Charlene Underwood
Director, Government Affairs, Siemens
As outgoing Chair of the EHRVA, Charlene Underwood is transitioning to a concentration on quality initiatives work for the association.
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Member Survey Highlights
In November, EHRVA members were invited to evaluate and provide feedback on the association’s current and future efforts. This information enabled our Work Groups, and the association as a whole, to shape objectives and initiatives for 2007 that reflect the values of our membership.
Highlights from November’s member survey:
- Top priorities for the EHRVA include
- Certification initiatives (CCHIT)
- Interoperability initiatives (AHIC, HITSP, IHE, Interoperability Roadmap)
- Advocacy and public policy (legislative, state, congressional)
- EHR adoption initiatives, such as financial incentives to physicians (Congress, payers)
- Quality initiatives (AHIC, NCQA, AMA, others)
- Majority of respondents believe the current EHRVA communications plan and strategy is effective
- EHRVA should lead the industry in advancing the adoption of EHRs
- Benefits of EHRVA membership exceeded the expectations of most respondents
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Calendar of Events
EHRVA Executive Meeting at HIMSS ’07 Annual Conference
Saturday, February 24th
2:00pm – 5:00pm
EHRVA Full Membership Meeting at HIMSS ’07 Annual Conference
Saturday, February 24th
5:30pm – 8:00pm
HIMSS ’07 Annual Conference and Exhibition
February 25th – March 1st, 2007
Ernest N Morial Convention Center
New Orleans, LA
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