DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES ACTIONS ADVANCE GOAL OF ELECTRONIC HEALTH INFORMATION INFRASTRUCTURE
Connecting for Health Applauds Appointment of Dr. David Brailer as National Health Information Technology Coordinator
New York, NY (May 10, 2004) - Connecting for Health commends the recent announcement by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on the adoption of the second group of standards for interoperable healthcare information and the appointment of Dr. David Brailer as the new National Health Information Technology Coordinator.
At last week's HHS Health Information Technology Summit, Secretary Thompson announced the adoption of 15 additional standards agreed to by the Consolidated Health Informatics (CHI) initiative. The adoption of these standards is important to the development of interoperable health information systems in the public and private sectors. The new position of National Health Information Technology Coordinator was created as a part of the Health Information Technology Plan, which was announced late last month. Dr. Bailer is currently chair of the Markle Foundation's Connecting for Health working group on Legal, Financial and Organizational Issues of Health Information Exchange.
"Electronic connectivity that enables patient information to be available privately and securely when patients and their doctors are making vital health decisions is essential if we are going to provide the best possible care to patients," said Dr. Carol Diamond, Managing Director of the Markle Foundation's Healthcare program and chair of Connecting for Health.
Connecting for Health, a public private sector collaborative initiative funded by the Markle Foundation and receiving additional support from The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, has been convening public and private sector stakeholders for the last year and a half to advance the goal of electronic connectivity within healthcare.
"These announcements are important building blocks for this much needed transformation of healthcare which must be done with strong public and private sector partnership," said John Lumpkin, MD, MPH, senior vice president of The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and executive vice chair of Connecting for Health.
"The Summit on Health Information Technology was an exciting opportunity to see the government and the private sector come together ready to accomplish one goal: that of a fully leveraged information technology system to improve healthcare quality, safety and efficiency," said Dan Garrett, vice president and managing director of Computer Sciences Corporation's Global Health Solutions Practice and executive vice chair of Connecting for Health.
"The call for someone to lead the nation's efforts to bring electronic connectivity to the healthcare industry is a two decade-old rallying cry," said Herbert Pardes, MD, president and CEO, New York-Presbyterian Hospital and executive vice chair of Connecting for Health. "We are most grateful for Secretary Thompson's leadership in this area and for his decision to appoint David Brailer to the post of National Health Information Technology Coordinator."
"David Brailer is a pioneer and innovator in the field of health informatics and Connecting for Health has benefited tremendously from his leadership," added Dr. Diamond.
Connecting for Health is an extraordinary public-private collaborative of more than 100 participants from both the public and private sectors committed to accelerating actions on a national basis to tackle the technical, financial and policy challenges of bringing healthcare into the information age. Connecting for Health has demonstrated that blending together the knowledge and experience of the public and private sectors can provide a formula for progress, not paralysis. Connecting for Health has convened a remarkable group of government, industry and healthcare leaders that has led the national debate on electronic clinical data standards. Early in its inception, the group drove consensus on the adoption of an initial set of standards, developed case studies on privacy and security and helped define the electronic personal health record (PHR). Currently, Connecting for Health is developing an incremental Roadmap or "shared path" that will lay out near-term actions to achieving electronic connectivity.
About the Markle Foundation: Emerging information and communication technologies possess enormous potential to improve people's lives. The Markle Foundation works to realize this potential by accelerating the use of these technologies to address critical public needs, particularly in the areas of healthcare and national security. The Markle Foundation's overarching goal in the health area is to accelerate the rate at which information technology enables consumers and the health system that supports them to improve health and healthcare. The Foundation's seeks to ensure that the extraordinary potential of 21st century information technology to improve the health and healthcare of each citizen is translated into everyday use as quickly and as effectively as possible. For more information, see www.markle.org.
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, based in Princeton, N.J., is the nation's largest philanthropy devoted exclusively to health and health care. It concentrates its grantmaking in four goal areas: to assure that all Americans have access to quality health care at reasonable cost; to improve the quality of care and support for people with chronic health conditions; to promote healthy communities and lifestyles; and to reduce the personal, social and economic harm caused by substance abuse - tobacco, alcohol and illicit drugs.
