AHIC has marching orders

Health Management Technology,  Dec, 2005  

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HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt's newly formed American Health Information Community chose its top three topics to tackle at its first meeting in October in Washington, D.C. They are: personal health records, telemonitoring for patients with chronic disease, and biosurveillance to watch for disease outbreaks and bioterrorism. The 17-member commission, headed by Leavitt, is a forum for senior executives from the public and private sectors to advise HHS on "how to make health records digital and interoperable, and assure that the privacy and security of those records are protected."

Leavitt encouraged the members to choose topics that would produce visible results soon, and "make real changes that last." Decisions in the advisory group are supposed to be by consensus. Because of growing concern about avian flu's potential to become a deadly pandemic, however, Leavitt asked the committee to put biosurveillance near the top of the list.

AHIC, also known as the Community, meets every four to six weeks. Work groups assigned to specific issues, will do much of the legwork. Contractors, who recently won awards from HHS, will work with the advisory group.

COPYRIGHT 2005 Nelson Publishing
COPYRIGHT 2005 Gale Group