FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: HHS Press Office
Tuesday, Sept. 13,
2005
(202) 690-6343
COMMISSIONERS SELECTED FOR AMERICAN
HEALTH INFORMATION COMMUNITY
The
Community Will Help
Shape the Future of Health Care for Generations
HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt today selected
16 commissioners to serve on the American Health Information Community (the
Community), a federally-chartered commission charged with advising the Secretary
on how to make health information digital and interoperable. The work of the
Community will help the country achieve the President's goal of having most
Americans using interoperable electronic health records within 10 years.
Patients, doctors, hospitals and insurance companies will have access to vital
and confidentiality-protected medical information immediately and efficiently,
helping to reduce medical errors, improve quality, lower costs and eliminate
paperwork hassle.
"The President has set a national goal to
move health care from the paper age to the information age, and the American
Health Information Community will help guide this transformation." Secretary
Leavitt said. "My aspiration is for the Community to provide stakeholders
with a meaningful voice in a federal process that will ultimately shape health
care for generations."
Interoperability of health information is a
shared goal among health care payers, providers, vendors and consumers. Myriad
competitive interests have prevented a unified effort to achieve common
standards and interoperability. As a result, health care has lagged behind
other industries -- like the banking, transportation, and retail trade -- in
realizing the benefits of modern information technology (IT).
"From nearly anywhere in the world, we can
withdraw money from our bank accounts, pay bills, apply for a mortgage, book
airline tickets and even order groceries online," Secretary Leavitt said.
"But, more often than not, we can't share a X-ray digitally, from one hospital
to another, even if they are on opposing street corners. Even worse, if a
loved one is involved in a life-threatening accident, paramedics and emergency
room doctors cannot quickly check their medical histories for even the most
basic things – like blood type or allergies. We can and must do better
than this."
The national strategy to confront this
problem calls for federal agencies -- that pay more than one third of all health
care costs -- to collaborate with private payers in developing and adopting an
architecture, standards, certification process and a method of governance for
ongoing implementation of health IT. Once the market has structure, patients,
providers, medical professionals and vendors will innovate, create efficiencies
and improve care.
Secretary Leavitt will chair the
Community. In addition to the Secretary, commission membership includes
the following:
- More
-
- 2
-
§
Scott P. Serota, President and CEO, Blue
Cross Blue Shield Association
§
Douglas E. Henley, M.D., Executive Vice
President, American Academy of Family
Physicians
§
Lillee Smith Gelinas, R.N., Chief Nursing
Officer, VHA Inc.
§
Charles N. Kahn III, President, Federation
of American Hospitals
§
Nancy Davenport-Ennis, CEO, National
Patient Advocate Foundation
§
Steven S Reinemund, CEO and Chairman,
PepsiCo
§
Kevin D. Hutchinson, CEO,
SureScripts
§
Craig R. Barrett, Chairman, Intel
Corporation
§
E. Mitchell Roob, Secretary, Indiana Family and Social
Services Administration
§
Mark B. McClellan, M.D., Administrator,
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services
§
Julie Louise Gerberding, M.D., Director,
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
§
Jonathan B. Perlin, M.D., Under Secretary
for Health, Department of Veterans Affairs
§
William Winkenwerder Jr., M.D., Assistant
Secretary of Defense, Department of Defense
§
Mark J. Warshawsky, Assistant Secretary for
Economic Policy, Department of Treasury
§
Linda M. Springer, Director, Office of
Personnel Management
§
Michelle O'Neill, Acting Under Secretary
for Technology, Department of Commerce
"I have selected commissioners who
represent key interests and have the broad support of their peers," Secretary
Leavitt said. "The Community will adhere to an aggressive timetable that
focuses on the areas of critical need -- such as adverse drug event reporting
and bio-surveillance -- as we get about the work of developing, setting and
certifying standards."
Dr. David
Brailer, National Coordinator for Information Technology, added, "The Community
will provide input and recommendations to HHS on how to make
health information
digital and interoperable, and assure that the privacy and security of
that information is
protected. The public-private nature of this group is designed to ensure
that this nationwide transition to electronic health records -- including common
standards and interoperability -- occurs in a smooth, market-led
way."
In addition to these commissioners, who
will serve two-year terms, the Secretary will seek input from Advisors who will
provide subject matter expertise on issues related to interoperability,
adoption, privacy and security, and other matters identified by the
Community. The federal members of the Community serve in their formal
capacities as appointees within the federal system and not as
individuals.
The first meeting of the Community is
scheduled for Oct. 7, 2005 in Washington, D.C. The meeting is open to the public.
Materials shared with the commissioners before and at the meeting, as well as
minutes of the proceedings can be accessed online at www.hhs.gov/healthit
.
A full copy of the Community's charter is
available at
www.hhs.gov/healthit/ahiccharter.pdf
###
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and other press materials are available at http://www.hhs.gov/news
.