Meaningful Use

Texas Health Resources recently received the Richard A. Norling Premier Alliance Excellence Award for its healthcare leadership. According to Ferdinand Velasco, MD, THR's vice president and CMIO, the award comes as a recognition of what the whole organization is doing around population health.

At the National Health Policy Conference in Washington this past week, officials from the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT and the National Institute of Standards and Technology made the case that EHRs must be usable -- and useful -- lest the huge investments in them be wasted.

National health programs have been, or are now, becoming electronic, just as health records are. Many of these programs will play major roles in either incenting or conflicting with efforts to advance the electronic healthcare infrastructure. And as with other industries, becoming electronic changes the way these programs can and should be carried out themselves. John Loonsk, MD, discusses how it might all shake out.

The Office of the National Coordinator's Health IT Standards Committee is urging ONC leaders to lean towards menu options and certification for use cases on Stage 3 meaningful use rather than core requirements, and to especially keep in mind that standards for a variety of clinical procedures are still evolving.

Leaders of healthcare policy encouraged the industry to move ahead faster during a keynote address at the National Health Policy Conference in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 4 "...help us speed up the rate of change," Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius encouraged conference attendees.

EHR implementation, meaningful use and compliance are the top three healthcare CIO priorities for 2013, according to a study released Feb. 4 by Level 3.

Interoperability is a lynchpin for health IT advancement, yet it is lacking, Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) told the audience at the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology 2012 Annual Meeting, Dec. 12 in Washington, DC.

"I would characterize this past year as an accelerating year," says John Hoyt, executive vice president of HIMSS Analytics.

A recent visit to a small hospital just a couple of miles from my home opened my eyes to how much can be accomplished on the health information technology front even with modest means.

Standards group Health Level Seven International (HL7) has formed the Clinical Quality Information Work Group. HL7 plans to offer more education to providers and the new work group will offer leadership in the development of standards artifacts and educational content to all stakeholders involved in quality measurement efforts.