The Healthcare Information Technology Standards Panel (HITSIP) recently recommended the adoption of three interoperability specifications to the American Health Information Community.
HITSIP is a multistakeholder group that develops data standards for American health care companies. The specifications it most recently considered relate to electronic health records, biosurveillance and consumer empowerment, and identify gaps and overlaps in existing standards and specifications. The panel’s recommendation for implementation testing of the specifications in industry facilitate the secure exchange of patient data, consistent with President Bush’s call for the widespread availability of interoperable electronic health records by 2014. Adoption of the HITSIP’s specifications was also recommended to the Department of Health and Human Services.

“HHS and HITSIP are empowering consumers to be stewards of their own health information,” says John Halamka, HITSIP chairman and Harvard Medical School’s chief information officer. “HITSIP volunteers have dedicated countless hours to this initiative, working together to develop an open, transparent process for standards harmonization based on objective criteria.”

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