Posted August 22, 2008
Patient Safety and Quality Healthcare: News
Patient Privacy Focus of Task Force on PHR Certification
Chicago, IL, July 24, 2008 — A special task force created by the Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology to provide strategic guidance on development for certification of personal health records (PHRs) has completed its work, recommending a strong focus on patient privacy, with attention to security and interoperability as well.
Last week, the PHR Advisory Task Force delivered its recommendations to the Certification Commission, which approved them unanimously. At a face-to-face meeting July 16-17, the Commission's PHR Work Group received the recommendations and began the process of developing criteria for certification of PHRs.
During its six weeks of work, the Task Force agreed that, with the PHR market still evolving, certification should create a "big tent" that can accommodate a diversity of models and architectures for delivering personal health information to consumers. The group also emphasized that certification should be simple for consumers to understand, offering them a "safety zone" where they could be comfortable that their information was private and secure.
"The Task Force agreed that, in order to address consumers' concerns about using personal health records, patient privacy should be the primary goal of certification," said Paul Tang, M.D., Vice President and Chief Medical Information Officer of Palo Alto Medical Foundation and co-chair of the PHR Advisory Task Force. "Lack of trust is often the biggest impediment to consumer adoption of PHRs. The work we're doing now will enhance patients' trust that their personal health information will be protected when using a certified product."
"As a consumer who currently uses an electronic personal health record, I appreciate the benefits of participating in the management of my health care. I am excited to be part of the group that is guiding certification of PHRs so that all consumers will feel safe managing their medical information electronically and can enjoy these benefits, as well," said Carl Phelps, a patient representative on the Commission's PHR Advisory Task Force.
The Advisory Task Force, which includes healthcare, corporate and consumer representatives, will continue to provide input about PHR certification to the Certification Commission's PHR Work Group.
In addition, the Task Force recommends that the PHR Work Group and the Commission's Interoperability Work Group collaborate to develop criteria that will ensure that PHRs can send and receive data from as many potential sources as possible, such as ambulatory EHRs, hospital EHRs, payers, pharmacies and labs.
The PHR certification program is expected to launch in mid-2009. Information about the Advisory Task Force's recommendations and its members can be found at http://cchit.org/phratf.
About CCHIT
The Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology (CCHIT®) is an independent, nonprofit organization that has been recognized by the federal government as an official certification body for electronic health record products. Its mission is to accelerate the adoption of health information technology by creating a credible, sustainable product certification program. The certification requirements are based on widely accepted industry standards and involve the work of hundreds of expert volunteers and input from a variety of stakeholders throughout the health care industry. More information on CCHIT and CCHIT Certified® products is available at www.cchit.org.
|
