US moves towards electronic health records

Mike Leavitt, secretary of the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has announced the formation of a national collaboration and four requests for proposals (RFPs) that will advance efforts to reach President Bush's call for most Americans to have electronic health records within 10 years.

Bush's vision is to create a personal health record that patients, doctors and other health care providers can securely access through the internet no matter where a patient is seeking medical care.

The announcement provides a way for patients, doctors, hospitals, insurance companies, and employers to agree on standards for electronic health records and ways to achieve 'interoperability' - the ability to access this vital medical information immediately and efficiently. The Institute of Medicine estimates that medical errors kill 45,000 to 98,000 Americans each year in hospitals, and believes that technology can reduce these figures by making health information more accessible to patients and providers.

'The national strategy for achieving interoperability of digital health information is for federal agencies - who pay for more than one-third of all health care in the country to work with private-sector health care providers and employers in developing and adopting an architecture, standards and certification process,' said Leavitt. 'The use of electronic health records and other information technology will transform our health care system by reducing medical errors, minimizing paperwork hassles, lowering costs and improving quality of care.'

The cornerstone of this effort is a private-public collaboration called the American Health Information Community (AHIC). It will provide input and recommendations to the HHS on how to make health records digital and interoperable, and assure that the privacy and security of those records are protected.

HHS will solicit nominations for people to serve on the AHIC and Leavitt will appoint up to 17 commission members, as well as serve as chairperson. It will be chartered for two years, with the option to renew and duration of no more than five years. The department intends for the AHIC to be succeeded within five years by a private-sector health information community initiative.