Skip to main content

The March HIT Standards Committee Meeting

The March HIT Standards Committee meeting focused on a review of the Standards and Certification NPRM, as well as planning for our upcoming second quarter work on the NwHIN portfolio, QueryHealth, Radiology image exchange standards, and governance.

Doug Fridsma began with an ONC update.  He described S&I Framework activities in 2011 that resulted in a single lab results implementation guide, merging the work of HITSP and CHCF/ELINCS.   This same approach will be used to create a single lab ordering implementing guide, including a standardized compendium of the most commonly ordered tests.   He described the plans for S&I Framework efforts on Clinical Decision Support standards.    He noted that ONC is looking at RESTful transport standards and the use of TLS for consumer mediated exchange.  He described further refinements to the NPRM that are needed to constrain Consolidated CDA (CCDA) in sufficient detail to ensure interoperability, such as the requirement to have specific templates for transitions of care.  Finally he described the future work needed on Health Insurance Exchanges and NIEM.

A robust discussion followed including the role of CCDA for longitudinal summaries verses episode of care summaries, the use of CCDA for  submission to registries/quality measurement entities,  and the possible use of CCDA for submission of data about multiple individuals in batch.

Next, Liz Johnson and Cris Ross described the Implementation Workgroup evaluation of certification criteria and testing procedures.   Here's a summary and here's the detail.

Highlights include a focus on workflows and testing procedures that are relevant to clinical environments in the domains of CPOE, e-Prescribing, Clinical Decision Support.  – The workgroup offered to develop clinical scenarios for use in testing such as ensuring EMAR implementations support the five rights - Right Medication, Right Dose, Right Patient, Right Time, Right Administration Method.

Jamie Ferguson provided an update on the Clinical Operations Workgroup and Vocabulary task force.    Issues include:
*The use of SNOMED-CT instead of ICD-10 for diagnosis.  If the intent is to gather clinical data, SNOMED-CT is best.    If billing classification is needed ICD-10 can be used.  There needs to be some criteria of usability for data entry of diagnosis.
*When e-Prescribing discharge medications, HL7 is often used inside an organization.  The NPRM does not include an HL7 option.  This may or may not be an issue because the NPRM does not describe workflows within an organization.
*The NPRM should include structured allergy vocabularies such as RxNorm for medications, UNII for individual ingredients, NDF-RT for categories, and SNOMED-CT for non-medications.   Since RxNorm includes UNII and NDF-IT, RxNorm CUI codes may work for all.
*Transmission - the Workgroup recommended both SMIME/SMTP and SOAP be required
*For patient access to view/download/transport, the Workgroup recommended TLS for transport and CCDA for download.
*For Family history, the Workgroup highlighted the adoption of the Surgeon General's Family History XML Format and tools, even though it is incomplete

Jim Walker provided update on the work of the Clinical Quality Workgroup, highlighting the work ahead on the journey to making quality measures easier to compute from existing EHR data.

Leslie Kelly Hall described the charter and work ahead for the Consumer Engagement Power Team.

Dixie Baker provided an update from the Privacy & Security Workgroup.   Highlights include the need to clarify the role of SOAP as an optional transport standards in the transitions of care as described in my recent post about transport.  She also discussed suggested improvements to patient audit log access, record download, and correction to records.

Finally, we emphasized the need for ongoing communication among ONC, workgroup chairs, and members to consolidate and coordinate all the NPRM input over the next month.  Liz Johnson was nominated as a person to serve as the HITSC representative to the HITPC Certification/Adoption Work Group, ensuring cross FACA coordination.

A great discussion and I'm very pleased with the progress we're making on the 2012 HITSC work plan.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

clip on magnetic sunglasses visit here

Save with prescription glasses and sunglasses. Prescription eyeglasses with magnetic clip on sunglasses. A wide selection of colors and styles for every budget! -GlassesPoint. Prescription eyeglasses with magnetic clip on sunglasses. A wide selection of colors and styles for every budget! Free magnetic clip on with every pair of glasses.  The operator should contact lens Plano glasses a few days of Sun and Rx on the other person. Many people choose single vision lenses, designed for a specific use, such as prescription sunglasses. Clip-ons magnetic magnetic clip ons often come with their prescription glasses frames. Prescription glasses Goggles4u dollars from 29.99 with free shipping. Takumi neodium magnet glass features recipes that are light, strong and in. The combination of some normal prescription glasses and a pair of polarized glasses that glare-resistant to outdoor activities. clip on magnetic sunglasses visit here

The Tragedy of Underfunded Mental Health Care

Today’s Managing Health Care Costs Indicator is   19,900 The NY Times  on Friday had a deeply disturbing article on a murder that stunned the mental health community here in Massachusetts.    A long-term schizophrenic man, off his medicine and spiraling into incoherence, killed a young female counselor who was the sole worker at a group home in a Boston suburb.   His mother, who works at a Boston teaching hospital, was frantic with worry as her adult son, who had been arrested for assault multiple times, was becoming more psychotic.    It was hard for her to get anyone’s attention. The counselor was the first in her family to get a college degree, and had just decided to go to nursing school.    Now she’s dead – and her family had trouble scraping together the resources for a burial.   The schizophrenic will be imprisoned for the rest of his life – which ironically could be the best chance for him to get appropriate medical care. Both...

How a Well-Intended FDA Policy on Colchicine is Harming Patients

The road to hell is paved with good intentions. The FDA has reaffirmed the truth of this aphorism with its policy about Colchicine. Here's the story: I recently spoke with a friend who has a family member suffering from Familial Mediterranean Fever (FMF), an auto-inflammatory disorder, most commonly seen in eastern Mediterranean populations. The condition is characterized by recurrent painful inflammation of the abdomen, chest and joints, accompanied by fever. FMF is associated with mutation of a gene on chromosome 16 involved with regulating Pyrin, a protein that is part of the inflammatory response. There is no specific test for the disease. Diagnosis is made on the basis of symptoms, family history, and ruling out other conditions. Since the 1960s, Colchicine, a plant extract first used for treatment of gout two thousand years ago, has been used for treating FMF. As an ancient treatment widely used prior to formation of the FDA, Colchicine did not require FDA approval as a new ...