1. 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

2. 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

3. 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

4. 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.

5. 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