A project sponsored by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology to clarify the definition of health information exchange and other common health IT terms will produce a draft of its conclusions next week.
The Chicago-based National Alliance for Health Information Technology manages the effort as a subcontractor to BearingPoint. The project’s Network Work Group focuses on the terms HIE and regional health information organization (RHIO).
Jane Horowitz, vice president and chief marketing officer for the Alliance, said the project’s literature search uncovered 20 unique definitions for HIE and 18 for RHIO. The Alliance now aims to cultivate consensus definitions with the goal of eliminating a barrier to HIT adoption.
Horowitz said a number of HIT terms have overlapping meanings, are used inconsistently or have different meanings in different settings. She said the project seeks practical definitions for the legislative environment and contractual arrangements where parties need a clear understanding of terms.
Other uses for the basic definitions include establishing a dialogue between technology vendors and customers and explaining HIT terms for the general public, the alliance said.
“Because there’s so much confusion over these words, it is obviously one of the barriers to adoption,” Horowitz said.
What the project won’t do is compile technical definitions describing functionality. Horowitz said that’s the job of other organizations such as the Certification Committee for Health Information Technology and HL7.
While the Network Work Group seeks common ground on HIE and RHIO, the project’s Records Work Group works on defining the terms electronic health record, electronic medical record and personal health record.
The project seeks public input for both work groups and to that end hosted its first definitions forum earlier this month in Washington. Additional forums are scheduled next month at the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society annual meeting in Orlando, Florida.
Horowitz said the Alliance will deliver a first-draft report to the Office of the National Coordinator Jan. 28. A second report will follow in mid-February and will coincide with a public comment period. The final report is due March 28.
Government Health IT presents Rick Friedman, director of the division of state systems for the Center for Medicaid and State Operations with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, in this recent eSeminar regarding how the federal Centers of Medicare and Medicaid Services is partnering with state Medicaid and health and human services officials to bring Medicaid into the digital age. Paul McCloskey, Government Health IT editor, moderates.
