House considers new agency to lead healthcare IT standards development

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House considers new agency to lead healthcare IT standards development
Healthcare IT News
By  Diana Manos, Senior Editor  09/27/07

WASHINGTON – In a bill that went relatively unnoticed, a House committee Sept. 26  considered changing the agency that oversees healthcare IT standards development. The oversight work first began in 2005 by President Bush’s executive order.

A hearing held Wednesday by the House Committee on Science and Technology considered making the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) the oversight agency on healthcare IT standards development, replacing the Department of Health and Human Services.

The hearing follows a bill proposed in May by Bart Gordon (D-Tenn. ), chair of the Science and Technology committee, to put NIST at the helm of coordinating healthcare IT standards development.

Meanwhile, the Administration has already announced it will spend $13 million in grant money to design a permanent private version of its healthcare IT advisory panel.

In testimony before the committee, Michael Raymer, general manager of global product strategy for GE Healthcare Integrated IT Solutions, was concerned that the change to NIST could interfere with “valuable work that has been done to date.”

“GE supports NIST’s increased involvement – but not at the expense of processes that are already working well, such as the Health Information Technology Standards Panel [HITSP],” Raymer said. “HITSP represents a best practice in public/private collaboration. We should be wary of any action that would result in diminishing the effectiveness of this group.”

Linda Kloss, CEO of the American Health Information Management Association said standards development has been slow because it has been mainly supported through volunteer efforts. She recommended that any changes made to the current standards process include financial support and staffing.

“Achieving consensus on complex standards and an understanding of their uniform application is a monumental task even with a shared vision,” Kloss said. She said Gordon’s bill could be used positively to sustain and accelerate the role that HITSP already plays.

As of June, the Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology under the Bush Administration had certified 90 electronic health record products with standards approved by HITSP, representing 40 percent of the ambulatory electronic health record vendors on today’s market.