U.S. electronic health-record standards agreed

南京猿人

By Kim Dixon
WASHINGTON, June 25 (Reuters) - U.S. consumer groups, insurers and privacy advocates together with Google Inc and Microsoft Corp said on Wednesday they have agreed to standards intended to speed adoption of personal electronic health records.
The electronic medical record field remains in its infancy. While U.S. privacy laws govern actions by medical providers like doctors, there is little in the way of other established privacy, security and data usage standards despite decades of industry effort.
Backers, which also include some doctors and employer groups, said they hope to break a stalemate in moving medical records online, sparked by consumer fears that their personal information will be abused, or held against them.
"A policy and privacy logjam ... has constricted some of the consumer uptake of these services," said James Dempsey, deputy director at the Center for Democracy and Technology, a privacy rights group.
Principles for personal health records include an audit trail to track use of the data, a dispute resolution process for consumers who believe their personal information has been misused and a ban on using data to discriminate in employment.
Also signing on to the principles are WebMD ; Consumers Union, which publishes Consumer Reports; AARP, the seniors' lobbying group, and America's Health Insurance Plans, which represents major insurers such as Aetna Inc .
Experts lament the fragmented nature of the health care system, where most doctors still use paper records, and most patients do not have access to their own personal health information.
Microsoft earlier this month announced that Kaiser Permanente, the biggest U.S. health maintenance organization, will use the Microsoft's HealthVault platform to link Kaiser employees who volunteer to have their records transferred.
Google sells Google Health, a U.S. health data service that combines the leading Web company's search services with a user's personal health records online. (Reporting by Kim Dixon; Editing by Steve Orlofsky) ((kim.dixon@thomsonreuters.com; +1 202 354 5864)) Keywords: MEDICAL RECORDS

小城医生

中国非政府组织的力量还是很薄弱。上次在埃森哲中国医院信息化情况白皮书会议上，有人提到了类似的问题。考虑中国HIT企业的实力尤其是基础领域的研究很薄弱，几乎不可能进行标准协议的制定，行业协会在努力的发展，当前阶段政府还是主导力量。

bblewis

具体内容参见Markle Foundation的Connection For Health网站http://www.connectingforhealth.org。有非常具体的framework说明。不过，Connection For Health只是一个framework，并不制定标准，它所选取的很多都已经是de facto的行业标准了，比如Medication History中就选了NCPDP(National Council for Prescription Drug Programs)。其他大家熟识的标准HL7、SNOMED CT等等都在其中。

Markle Foundation的新闻原稿在，
http://www.connectingforhealth.org/news/pressrelease_062508.html#

个人觉得，象征意义大于实际意义。