[Med-privacy] EMRs, etc.

[pmarshall]

   IOM to Release Report on IT, Medical Errors

   November 20, 2003

                                The Institute of Medicine on Thursday
will release a report stating that the only way
                                to reduce medical errors is widespread
adoption of IT, such as electronic medical
                                records that can be connected through a
national system linking all health care
                                organizations. The report also will
=93point the finger=94 at the health care industry for
                                failing to develop a standard for
electronically sharing patient data, the Wall Street
                                Journal reports.

   Meanwhile, several medical organizations, including the American
Academy of Family Physicians , the
   Massachusetts Medical Society, the Healthcare Information and
Management Systems Society and ASTM
   International, have been working on a plan to make patient records
more portable and easier to share among
   providers. The Continuity of Care Record, or CCR, is based on a
common computer language and uses data
   tags that any computer system can recognize. The record can be sent
electronically or printed and faxed,
   the Journal reports.

   Sponsors of the project on Monday agreed on a final design for the
CCR, and a final vote is set for next
   month.

   =93We don=92t have a simple way to transfer patient information from o=
ne
care setting to the other, and this is
   an attempt to get something out there that could immediately benefit
patients,=94 said Dr. Thomas Sullivan,
   president of the Massachusetts Medical Society and chief architect of
the CCR project.

   The CCR also can be incorporated into a more complete EMR system,
according to Dr. David Kibbe, the
   AAFP=92s director of health IT. The AAFP recently entered an agreement=

with eight health care companies to
   lower the price of EMR systems for physicians (Landro, Wall Street
Journal, 11/20). The AAFP earlier
   this year announced plans to develop open-source EMRs, but abandoned
that idea after physician groups
   rejected the effort (iHealthBeat, 11/13).

                       iHealthBeat is published daily for California
HealthCare Foundation by The Advisory Board Company.
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d
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