1. Did you know that a Bill passed out of the NJ Legislative Committee (11-0) to make it Illegal in that State to buy or use any non-CCHIT certified EMR? Such a bill can be seen as a means to deny open source EMRs any chance. Interestingly, Dr. Conaway, the motivator of this bill, was specifically invited to our HIMSS booth by our Regional Sales Director for New England, Bill Hockstedler, for him to gain some insight into the open source world in general and OpenVista in particular. He declined. Hmmmmm!
2. Way to go AMA!!! Here are a couple of snippets from the AMA regarding policies including open source software:
"The policies concern physicians' responsibilities in case of computer security breaches and support of electronic health-record systems based on open-source code."
"On open-source, delegates approved a resolution calling for the AMA to support law and public policy that makes open source EHR systems that meet certification and "meaningful use" requirements available to physicians at nominal cost."
3. Another posting on HITS suggests that EMR adopters may find more stringent regulations on "meaningful use" as they seek continuing stimulus bucks. The suggestion is that an EMR may meet the "meaningful use" criteria at the outset, but may have more and more goals to meet as the bar to obtain continuing stimulus dollars gets set higher and higher with time. Indeed, an EMR user may even face such increases in regulations between the time they decide on an EMR and the time their first stimulus dollars are released in 2011. So, will the EMR world now face an ever increasing "meaningful use" bar to hurdle as time goes on? Surprising that there would be any suggestion of "raising the bar" when they haven't defined "meaningful use" as yet.
4. Since we are on the subject of "meaningful use", AHRQ has posted this: "HHS' Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) is seeking comments on the preliminary definition of “Meaningful Use” of electronic health records as presented to the HIT Policy Committee on June 16. Comments on the draft description of "Meaningful Use" are due by Friday, June 26, 5 p.m., EDT, and should be no more than 2,000 words in length. Select to access instructions for submitting comments." Might be time for us in the open source world to make our voices heard.
5. Have you read the "meaningful use" matrix yet? Try this: http://healthit.hhs.gov/portal/server.pt/gateway/PTARGS_0_11113_872719_0_0_18/Meaningful%20Use%20Matrix.pdf
6. This article in "Advance" is a "Tidbit" and a good one at that. If you need to have, at your fingertips, an up to date review of open source and the stimulus package, here it is. Oh yes, our position is well stated by Rick Jung and Mike Doyle. Read on: http://health-information.advanceweb.com/editorial/content/editorial.aspx?cc=200988
7. Oh wait, did someone say that "meaningful use" is still not defined??? Nope, back to the drawing board boys and girls. Is 2011 still coming?
http://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/onc-goes-back-drawing-board-meaningful-use.
I am tired. Later.
Rob.
