Presented at: HIT Symposium at MIT Cambridge, MA July 18, 2006 The Complex Infrastructure of Government Efforts to Support the Dispersion of Health Information Technology: The Role of the American Health Information Community Kevin Hutchinson President and CEO of SureScripts Commissioner, The American Health Information Community Presented at: HIT Symposium at MIT Cambridge, MA July 18, 2006

The American Health Information Community (the Community) "The President has set a national goal to move health care from the paper age to the information age, and the American Health Information Community will help guide this transformation. My aspiration is for the Community to provide stakeholders with a meaningful voice in a federal process that will ultimately shape health care for generations." -- HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt Quote from Secretary Leavitt’s Health IT Leadership Panel Report (May 11, 2005) “The federal government should use its leverage as the nation’s largest health care payer and provider to drive adoption of health IT.” The Community’s purpose…to help guide the healthcare’s transformation from the paper age to the information age. THE 4 GOALS OF THE COMMUNITY: Goal 1: Inform Health Care Professionals Goal 2: Interconnect Health Care Goal 3: Personalize Health Management Goal 4: Improve Population Health

The American Health Information Community (the Community) Initial recommendations: Prioritized health IT initiatives that will bring significant value to the consumer in 1-3 years Identify breakthrough opportunities including: Biosurveillance Consumer empowerment Electronic health records Chronic care monitoring 4 work groups for each breakthrough involving 70 experts and stakeholders Work Groups have made recommendations on the major policy, technical and social barriers to the breakthroughs

Health Information Technology Deployment Coordination Health Care Industry Biosurveillance Consumer Empowerment Chronic Care Electronic Health Records Breakthroughs Standards Harmonization Compliance Certification NHIN Privacy / Security Health IT Adoption Infrastructure Industry Transformation Consumer Value Coordination of Policies, Resources, and Priorities Office of the National Coordinator -Health IT Policy Council -Federal Health Arch. The Community -Workgroups Technology Industry Now the we have the building blocks for interoperability forming in collaboration with the technology industry, we now have a mechanism in place to hear from the health care industry and establish priorities and implement recommendations that will take advantage of the building infrastructure for health information exchange and interoperability to ultimately bring value to the consumer. For example, the consumer empowerment breakthrough has a specific charge to figure out how to mobolize medication history data in 2006 in such a way that its allows for privacy and security of indentifiable information. The HITSP could enable this through recognizing a standardized set of data elements for unique identification. CCHIT could require SCRIPT v8 that includes medication history in certification criteria, and HIPSC could identify ways to enable consumer controlled exchange of sensitive medication history. We also have a variety on mechanisms to coordinate government policies and activities through the HIT Policy Council and FHA. Much of the early thinking around policies, infrastructure, data models, and implementation of breakthroughs is already happening through the public-private work groups under the Community.

The American Health Information Community (the Community) Most common myths… The Community has all the answers. The Community does not need my involvement. Wait until the Community is finished its work before moving the industry forward. Lots of money will be coming from the Community to drive adoption of health information technology. THREE MOST COMMON MYTHS RE AHIC --AHIC WILL SOLVE EVERYTHING --EVERYONE SHOULD WAIT UNTIL AHIC FINISHES ITS WORK TO MOVE AHEAD --THERE IS MONEY COMING OUT AHIC