HIMemo

NHIT Summit organizers announce featured speakers

Featured speakers at The National Health Information Technology Summit scheduled for April 15-16 in Houston will include Robert M. Kolodner, MD, HHS' national coordinator for health information technology in Washington, D.C., according to the summit Web site.

Other featured speakers will include:

• Chuck Friedman, PhD, HHS' deputy national coordinator for health information technology, Washington, DC
• Stephen Palmer, advisor in Texas' Office of the Governor in Austin, TX
• Ann Kitchen, executive director of the Indigent Care Collaboration in Austin, TX
• Shannon S. Calhoun, executive director of Southeast Texas Health System in Goliad, TX
• Doug Denzeiser, deputy commissioner of the Regulatory Matters, Life, Health and Licensing Programs of the Texas Department of Insurances in Austin, TX
• Jack W. Smith, MD, PhD, dean of The University of Texas School of Health Information Sciences at Houston

Click here for additional program information about the summit.

[ via EHR Connection ]

HIT definitions project on HIMSS conference agenda

HHS's Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONCHIT) will continue its EHR definitions project with two public forums during the annual meeting of the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) in Orlando, FL, next month.

In its January 16th announcement, ONCHIT said the forums will focus on these terms:

• Health information exchange (HIE)
• Regional health information organization (RHIO)
• Electronic health record (EHR)
• Electronic medical record (EMR)
• Personal health record (PHR)

The first forum, scheduled for 4-6 p.m. EST, Tuesday, February, 26, will focus on HIE and RHIO. Topics at the second forum, scheduled for 11 a.m.-1p.m. EST, Wednesday, February, 27, will be EHR, EMR, and PHR.

Click here for additional information about the HIT definitions project or to register for one or both forums. Registration for these two events is free.

[ via EHR Connection ]

National HIT Summit in Houston

Online registration for the National Health Information Technology Summit in Houston April 15-16 is under way, according to its Web site.

The early registration fee is $500; nonprofit and student registration fees are $100 and $50, respectively. Early registration ends at 11:59 p.m. EST, February 29. Late registration fees remain the same for nonprofits and students, but regular registration will be $575 from March 1 through April 8, when online registration ends.

Onsite registration is necessary after April 8.

Click here to register for The National Health Information Technology Summit and for detailed information about its cancellation and substitution policies.

[ via EHR Connection ]

AHIMA announces project to develop, standardize healthcare IT for long-term care providers

The American Health Information Management Association's (AHIMA) Foundation of Research and Education (FORE) announced January 3 that a new project is underway that will increase and standardize EHR and healthcare information technology (HIT) use by long-term care providers, according to an AHIMA press release.

The project will enable post-acute and long-term care vendors and providers to develop and implement EHRs and HIT products that will be functional in the emerging interoperable nationwide health information network, according to AHIMA.

"The implementation guidance developed for the exchange of standardized assessments and patient summaries will guide vendors, providers, and policy makers on how to apply standards to assessments and patient summary information, and use standards to support the exchange of this information," according to the press release.

To read the press release, click here.

[ via HIPAA Weekly Advisor ]

HHS advisory committee calls for stronger health data privacy

The National Committee on Vital and Health Statistics (NCVHS) recently released a report, Enhanced Protections for Uses of Health Data: A Stewardship Framework for 'Secondary Uses' of Electronically Collected and Transmitted Health Data, which made more than 20 specific recommendations for increasing the privacy of EHRs, according to a January 7 article in Government Health IT. In the report, NCVHS calls for "a transformation, in which the focus is on appropriate data stewardship for all uses of health data by all users, independent of whether an organization is covered under HIPAA."

The committee also found that HIPAA is effective when health data is used for patient care, but that "the more removed the user is from the patient, the less assurance there is that the data will be protected," says the article. "[The report] raised concerns about the sale of health data, the adequacy of de-identification techniques, the numerous state and federal laws covering health information privacy, and the difficulty of distinguishing between research using health data and quality improvement programs using the same data," according to the article.

For more information, click here.

To read the report, click here.

[ via HIPAA Weekly Advisor ]

CMS releases final HIPAA Security Educational Paper

CMS released its final paper in the HIPAA Security Educational Paper Series, entitled "Security Standards Implementation for the Small Provider," on December 12, 2007. The final paper is intended to assist small healthcare providers' HIPAA security rule compliance, according to the CMS Web site.

The other papers in the series include:

• Security 101 for Covered Entities
• Security Standards Administrative Safeguards
• Security Standards Physical Safeguards
• Security Standards Technical Safeguards
• Security Standards Organizational, Policies and Procedures and Documentation Requirements
• Basic of Risk Analysis and Risk Management

To view the paper, click here.

[ via HIPAA Weekly Advisor ]

Survey says nurses think security requirements impede productivity

A recent survey on the current state of information technology adoption by U.S. nurses indicates that many believe that current security requirements impede productivity. Spyglass Consulting Group, a market intelligence firm and consultancy, published the survey, Healthcare Without Bounds: Point of Care Computing for Nursing, according to a December 17, 2007 press release.

The report indicates that nurses were "concerned their IT organizations are implementing stringent security policies that protect patient health information at the expense of impeding nursing productivity," says the press release. Nurses reported logging in and out of systems upwards of 80 times per day, according to the survey.

To view the press release, click here.

[ via HIPAA Weekly Advisor ]

Register for definitions project public forum

HHS's Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology has scheduled two public forums to encourage widespread industry participation in its EHR definitions project, according to its December 18 announcement.

The first public forum will be held from 9 a.m. to noon, January 16, at Washington Hospital's National Rehabilitation Center Auditorium. The second forum will be held at the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society conference and exhibition at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, FL, in February. There are no registration fees for either forum.

Forum organizers encourage the health care community to participate by attending definitions forums, submitting definitions, and volunteering as work group members. Definitions forums will include a review of the work-in-progress and will provide the healthcare community and other thought leaders an opportunity to comment, to share their concerns, and to contribute to the project.

The public forums are an important step in the process of developing consensus-based definitions of electronic health record, electronic medical record, health information exchange, personal health record, and regional health information network.

Click here to register for the first definitions project public forum.

[ via EHR Connection ]