New Priorities for HITSP

Some of you may have seen the news alert from Modern Healthcare today "HITSP suspends activity for 90 days" and the followup article at Modern Healthcare's website "HITSP pauses use case work to focus on EHR stimulus requirements"

I've spoken with the author Joe Conn, shared my powerpoint presentation, and have been told that further clarification will appear in Modern Healthcare's Beyond the Headlines tomorrow.

The article notes that the HIT Standards Committee "is the apparent replacement of the current Healthcare Information Technology Standards Panel, which was created in 2005 as a private, not-for-profit organization but funded under a $3.3 million contract from HHS. "

The HIT Standards Committee will hopefully will be the evolution of NeHC. It is my hope and expectation that HITSP will now receive its priorities from the HIT Standards Committee, not be replaced by it.

I'd like to summarize my webinar message to the HITSP Panel today, which is about reprioritizing and accelerating our work, not suspending it.

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act contains numerous technology and privacy provisions with aggressive timelines for completion.

Many of these ARRA milestones are related to standards and the work of the Healthcare Information Technology Standards Panel including

1. Technology to protect privacy and security
2. A nationwide health information infrastructure that supports exchange of health information
3. The use of certified health record for each person in the US by 2014
4. Technologies to account for disclosures of health information
5. The use of certified electronic health records to improve the quality of health care, such as by promoting the coordination of health care and improving continuity of health care among health care providers, by reducing medical errors, by improving population health, by reducing health disparities, by reducing chronic disease, and by advancing research and education.
6. Technologies that allow individually identifiable health information to be rendered unusable, unreadable, or indecipherable to unauthorized individual
7. The use of electronic systems to ensure the comprehensive collection of patient demographic data
8. Technologies that address the needs of children and other vulnerable populations

In order to meet these statutory requirements, HITSP must focus the energies of its volunteers, staff, and leadership on these areas for the next 90 days. This means that HITSP's products to date - 13 interoperability specifications - will be leveraged to create new streamlined electronically published standards guides organized around the ARRA EHR interoperability requirements . The end result will be much more compact, easy to implement, and flexible implementation guidance which supports the meaningful use of EHRs and protection of privacy.

This focus on ARRA will result in a re-examination and adjustment of the current HITSP work schedule for the next 90 days. Some efforts (e.g., SSA, Interoperability Showcase, Quality Measures, NHIN and CCHIT coordination, etc.) are expected to continue on a non-interference basis.

We've circulated our early thoughts about the work ahead to our technical committee chairs and encouraged them to discuss scope, time, and resource needs with their committee members.

I look forward to the great work HITSP will do together over the next 90 days. It will be like running a marathon, but it will be worth it!