The HIT Policy Committee will meet for the fourth time this Friday, August 14th at 10am EST. Now that the Meaningful Use recommendations have been adopted, focus will be on the other two workgroups. Last month the Certification/Adoption workgroup presented a progress report and its recommendations. Keeping in the theme of the matrix, the purpose of certification was defined by the why, who, how, and what of validation, certification, and assurance. The proposed definition of HHS certification is as follows: “HHS Certification means that a system is able to achieve government requirements for security, privacy, and interoperability, and that the system would enable the Meaningful Use results that the government expects. HHS Certification is not intended to be viewed as a ‘seal of approval’ or an indication of the benefits of one system over another.”
Each of the five recommendations were presented and discussed. The recommendations have been open for comment since the meeting. As always, here is how to participate.
And I have to share a great three part interview by Anthony Guerra with Paul Egerman, co-chair of the Certification workgroup. You can also find Anthony on Twitter – we follow him, especially on committee meeting days when he tweets what is going on. And he does a great job on that too.
Effective August 10, 2009, 36 year old Todd Park, an Athena Health co-founder and Board of Director, will divest his stock position along with other interests to accept the appointment of Chief Technology Officer (CTO) for HHS. The CTO reports to the Deputy Secretary of HHS William Corr and is responsible for working with HHS department leadership and agencies on the innovative and creative use of information and technology to improve the health of Americans. Much has been written on picking someone clearly outside the usual suspects and a praised innovator in the private sector. Park is expected to begin work by the end of the month.
On the conference front, registration is now open for the 2009 Health 2.0 in San Francisco on October 6 and 7.