Archive for May, 2009

Putting the Cart before the Horse

The vice-chair of the HIT Standards Committee, John Halamka, MD, opened the first Standards Committee meeting by charging the committee with “recommending standards, implementation specifications, and certification…in support of meaningful use.” But “meaningful use” has not yet been defined, which [...]

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The Machinery Behind Health-Care Reform

This weekend, The Washington Post published an investigative report entitled “The Machinery Behind Health-Care Reform: How an Industry Lobby Scored a Swift, Unexpected Victory by Channeling Billions to Electronic Records.” The reporter, Robert O’Harrow Jr., clearly hit a nerve when [...]

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Legislation without Representation

The 21 members of the HIT Standards Committee have been appointed, and unfortunately I was not among those selected. However, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and National Coordinator for Health Information Technology David Blumenthal did assemble a highly credentialed, very impressive [...]

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No Use = No “Meaningful Use”

On Day 2 of the Government’s Hearing on Meaningful Use, there was finally some recognition of the need for physicians to be able and actually willing to use their EMRs. Three speakers from the audience, including SRS, presented testimony reminding [...]

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