Workgroups

Work Group Chairs and Members Named for ONC's HIT Definitions Project

Chicago, November 30, 2007 - As part of a project for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Office of the National Coordinator to remove barriers to information technology adoption in healthcare, co-chairs and members have been named to two work groups that will create consensus-based definitions and context of use for five key HIT terms. People from all sectors of healthcare applied to join the Records Work Group, which will focus on electronic health record (EHR), electronic medical record (EMR), and personal health record (PHR), and the Networks Work Group, which will focus on regional health information organization (RHIO) and health information exchange (HIE).

Along with ONC and management and technology consulting firm BearingPoint, Inc. (NYSE: BE), The National Alliance for Health Information Technology selected participants with extensive healthcare industry experience, practical experience with healthcare IT such as EHRs and RHIOs, and previous contribution to a large industry work group, committee or standards project.

"We received a tremendous response from well-qualified applicants to our call for participation, which made choosing the members a real challenge," says Jane Horowitz, vice president and chief marketing officer for the Alliance, who is leading the project. "We are grateful for the experts who have agreed to devote so much time and effort to defining these terms and thus facilitating the use of IT to improve patient care and safety."

The co-chairs of the Records Work Group are: John Haughom, MD, Senior Vice President, Clinical Quality and Patient Safety, PeaceHealth, chair and Donald Mon, PhD, Vice President, Practice Leadership, AHIMA, co-chair.

Members are:

  • Jim Adams, Executive Director, IBM Center for Healthcare Management
  • Robert DiLaura, DBA, MBA, CPHIMS, Co-Director Cleveland CTSA, Cleveland Clinic
  • Alan Dowling, PhD, Executive Director, Noblis Center for Health Innovation; Adjunct Professor, Case Western Reserve University
  • Mary Alice Hanken, PhD, Quality Manager, Sound Mental Health
  • Bart Harmon, MD, Chief Medical Officer, Harris Corporation
  • Marcelline Harris, RN, PhD, Mayo Clinic
  • Howard Hays, MD. MSPH, Medical Informatics, Indian Health Service
  • Stanley Huff, MD, Chief Medical Informatics Officer Intermountain Healthcare
  • Robert A. Jenders, MD, MS, Associate Professor, Department of Medicine, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and University of California, Los Angeles
  • Soori Kani, Executive Director, Vangent, liaison
  • David Longnecker, MD, Director, Association of American Medical Colleges
  • Christoph Lehmann, MD, Director, Clinical Information Technology, John Hopkins CMSC
  • Charles Parker, Vice President, CIO, Masspro
  • Richard Rydell, P.E., MBA, CEO, Association of Medical Directors of Information Systems
  • Andrea Sodano, PhD, Director, Health Information Technology, Wal-Mart Stores
  • Victoria Wangia, PhD, Coordinator for Public Health Informatics, University of Kansas Medical Center

The co-chairs for the Networks Work Group are: Bill Bernstein, Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP, chair and Pamela Matthews, RN, MBA, FHIMSS, Senior Director Business Information Systems, HIMSS, co-chair.

Members are:

  • Kenneth Cole, MCSE, FACHE, Division Manager, TRICARE Management Activity Privacy Office, Axiom Resource Management
  • Lynn Dierker, RN. Project Director, Foundation of Research and Education, American Health Information Management Association
  • Janice Forrester, PhD, Director Health Information Technology, Regence Blue Cross Blue Shield
  • Martin Hickey, MD, Senior Vice President, Health Care Affairs Division, Excellus Blue Cross Blue Shield
  • Mark J. Jacobs, MHA, CPHIMS, Director, Information Services, WellSpan Health
  • Soori Kani, Executive Director, Vangent, liaison
  • Janet King, Project Manager, Vanderbilt Center for Better Health/Regional Infomatics
  • James Kretz, Project Officer, SAMHSA/USDHHS
  • Frank McKinney, ePrescribing Product Strategist, Achieve Healthcare
  • Jeffrey Odell, Senior Vice President, MedVirginia
  • Brian Smith, Mental Health Services, Vermont Department
  • Margaret Suddards, Product Manager, Axoloti Corporation
  • Randy Thomas, Vice President, Premier, Inc.
  • Greg Wenneson, CIO, Alliance for Rural Community Health, co-chair.

The work groups will hold their first meetings on November 30 to begin laying out action plans and timetables. As part of the process, the work groups will actively seek industry input from public forums to be convened in January and February as well as from public comments submitted during that period via definitions.nahit.org. By March 28, 2008, the work groups will submit their final report to ONC.
© 2007 by The National Alliance for Health Information Technology
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