You are using an outdated browser. Some of the rich features of this site is not going to function on this browser. Consider updading your browser or using a newer browser.
Reports, articles, and other resources
This presentation provides an overview of the basic principles of the Connecting for Health Common Framework, and discusses the goals and challenges that the healthcare industry faces to create a truly connected health information system.
Identifies the policy issues that lead to trust (cross-cutting issues, obtaining patient notification and consent, appropriate uses of health information, identifying records that belong to a particular patient, authenticating the identity of users, patient access to his or her own information, audit trails, and breaches of confidential health information).
The release of the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ (CMS) incentive program for the Meaningful Use1of electronic health records(EHRs) marks a major, positive step forward in the nation’s efforts to improve health and health care by putting modern information technology (IT) tools at the fingertips of medical professionals and consumers alike. We applaud the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) for establishing an important set of priorities and drafting targets that are, in general, both ambitious and staged to enable broad participation. This was a very challenging and novel undertaking, and the result is an important contribution to the potential of information technology to improve the quality and efficiency of health care. In particular, the NPRM: states that the goal of health IT is to improve health quality and efficiency embraces patient engagement as a key aspect of Meaningful Use establishes metrics for health improvement rather than focusing merely on acquiring technology adopts a phased approach to allow for technology development and testing at initial stages largely proposes simple and easy-to-use requirements for reporting quality results makes progress aligning various HHS quality reporting initiatives and eliminating the need for duplicative reporting While the NPRM takes substantial strides in the right direction, our comments offer specific suggestions for clarifying the regulations and ironing out workable implementation details to achieve the urgent priorities of this effort: improving health and efficient use of health care resources, protecting privacy, and encouraging innovation and broad participation across many health care settings. In this set of collaborative comments, advanced by a diverse array of health leaders, we offer our comments and recommendations on the NPRM in five distinct categories: goals and quality measures eligibility and reporting patient engagement feedback and payment clarification and technical fixes ------------ Medicare and Medicaid Programs; Electronic Health Record Incentive Program; Proposed rule. 75 Federal Register 8 (January 13, 2010), pp. 1844–2011.
By the end of the twentieth century, information technology and Internet policy had emerged as major areas of interest for Markle’s research. Our current focus on advancing health in a connected world evolved from earlier initiatives that strove to define the ways in which the responsible use of technology can be a force for changing the world in positive ways.
Aligning Health IT and Health Care Reform Dramatic improvements are possible with smart alignment of health information technology and health care reform. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 allows for investments in health IT. These investments represent a vital step toward our nation’s health reform objectives of improving health and reducing unsustainable cost growth, but only if we make smart decisions now that align these efforts. Markle, together with its collaborators and supporters, has produced a series of consensus statements and comments on the “meaningful use” of electronic health records. These papers represent a collective view that aligning health IT with health care reform efforts begins with setting the right goals for technology development efforts. Success will be measured in terms of lives saved, improvements in the quality of health care, and slowing down growth in costs.
Introduction This paper is a summary of the Markle Foundation’s work in supporting the development of a telemedicine clinic in Ratanakiri Province, Cambodia, which was launched in April of 2003. It includes an overview of the project, a discussion of lessons learned and applied thus far, and suggestions for future work.
Overview Participants in Connecting for Health.A Public-Private Collaborative were challenged at their initial meeting in September of 2002 to agree within nine months on a set of clinical data standards and to put into motion a series of actions designed to accelerate the adoption of those standards. By explicitly characterizing the process as a search for workable answers, the leaders of the Collaborative recognized that their primary role was neither to exhort nor to report. Instead, the most pressing task was to catalyze specific actions on a national scale that would rapidly clear the way for an interconnected, electronic health information infrastructure. In pursuing this objective, the Collaborative focused on three key areas: • Accelerating the rate of adoption of national clinical data standards in order to facilitate true interoperability. This was the task of the Data Standards Working Group. • Identifying practical strategies and solutions for ensuring the secure and private transmission of medical information. This was the task of the Privacy and Security Working Group. • Actively working to understand what consumers will need and expect from an interconnected health information system. This was the task of the Personal Health Working Group. In addition, the members of this Steering Group were asked to articulate a vision for the Collaborative’s activities; provide strategic direction and oversight of the three Working Groups; and actively undertake efforts to further the Collaborative's goals. The results of the activities of the Steering Group and the recommendations from the Working Groups are presented in the short summaries that follow. Each of the Working Groups has also authored a paper that more fully describes its work.
