e-News March 24, 2011

March 24, 2011

March 2011 VOL 3 ISSUE 12


AMIA Education/Events Come to Orlando for PHI 2011; Get MU Crash Course Free! 10 X 10 Spring Courses Announced	Policy & Government Affairs AMIA Holds Its First Policy Briefing Webinar HHS Unveils National Strategy for Health Care Quality Improvement Database Tracks State Reform-Related Bills Upcoming NPP Meeting to Discuss HHS National Quality Strategy Direct Project Continues to Expand CMS Launches New Innovation Center Website State Documentation of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities to Inform Strategic Action Calendar	Member News American College of Surgeons Welcomes AMIA Leader to New Post RTI Hosts HIT Policy Forum

Come to Orlando for PHI 2011; Get MU Crash Course Free!

AMIA and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are teaming up to offer an education program designed to describe the implications of Meaningful Use (MU) for public health professionals. This boot camp-style event will occur at PHI 2011—at the same venue in Orlando— and will cover the following topics:

The regulatory and temporal timeframe of MU,
Standardization required for MU implementation,
The CDC’s Public Health Information Network (PHIN) and its resources, and
MU adoption by public health and how it will be monitored.

This program is intended for federal, state, territorial, and local MU coordinators; as well as electronic laboratory reporters, immunization registry and syndromic surveillance managers, and other public health project officers. There is no registration fee to attend this special program, but registration will be required. Maximize your learning experience by attending both programs! No other pair of events provides the opportunity to set the next informatics agenda for public health and learn from the foremost experts on Meaningful Use!

More information is coming soon, check the PHI 2011 program page and next week's e-News for details on content and how to register.

10 X 10 Spring Courses Announced

AMIA will be offering multiple 10 X 10 courses this spring, including, the original 10 X 10 informatics course presented with Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU), beginning April 27. This course is designed to offer a detailed overview of biomedical and health informatics to those who work at the interface of healthcare IT. The course aims to provide a broad understanding from the vantage point of those who implement, lead, and develop IT solutions for improving health, healthcare, public health, and biomedical research. It gives up-to-date details on current events in the field, including Meaningful Use, specified by the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009. Registration deadline is April 27.

Other courses also available through the 10x10 program:

University of Minnesota School of Nursing (UMN) – course begins April 11.

OHSU in conjunction with the American Dietetic Association (ADA) – course begins April 13.

Nova Southeastern University (NSU) – course begins May 16.

University of Illinois Chicago (UIC) – course begins May 27.

Stanford University – course begins June 21.

OHSU in conjunction with the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) – course begins June 29.

Please visit www.amia.org/e-learning to view course descriptions and to register.

AMIA Holds Its First Policy Briefing Webinar

AMIA's Public Policy team delivered its first quarterly update on policy issues via webinar earlier this week. Many of AMIA's corporate members, Public Policy committee members, and Working Group policy liaisons attended, to follow the briefing online and by phone as Doug Peddicord, president of the Washington Health Strategies Group, presented, along with AMIA VP of Policy Meryl Bloomrosen. Useful information and context about Congressional, Legislative, and Administrative happenings were included in the hour-long session. Click here to view the recorded webinar and download the slides. Policy briefings will be presented using this online format three out of four quarters each year.

HHS Unveils National Strategy for Health Care Quality Improvement

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recently released the National Strategy for Quality Improvement in Health Care, which calls for a focus on patient-centered care, reducing costs, and improving public health. HHS hopes that the National Quality Strategy will promote quality healthcare in which the needs of patients, families, and communities guide the actions of all those who deliver and pay for care. The federal health reform law called for the creation of the strategy to guide local, state, and national efforts to improve health care. Click here to view the full strategy.

Database Tracks State Reform-Related Bills

The National Conference of State Legislatures has developed a free database of legislation introduced in the states related to the Affordable Care Act. Topics covered in the database include Medicaid, health insurance exchanges, health insurance reform, health information technology, prevention and wellness, and providers and workforce. The database includes 2011 legislation, including pending, failed, and enacted bills and resolutions. Bills can be searched by state, topic, keyword, status, and primary sponsor. Click here to learn more and to access the database.

Upcoming NPP Meeting to Discuss HHS National Quality Strategy

The National Priorities Partnership (NPP) will host an open meeting on April 4, from 9 a.m.–2 p.m. EDT at the Crystal City Marriott at Reagan National Airport. At the meeting, the NPP Partners will anticipate and strategize their work in providing input to HHS on the National Quality Strategy. The Partners also will discuss high-leverage areas for collective NPP action. Click here for more information about the meeting.

Direct Project Continues to Expand

The Direct Project recently announced that more than 60 healthcare and health IT organizations, including many state-based and private-sector health information exchanges, leading IT vendors, and several leading integrated delivery systems, have planned support for the project. The overall goal is to develop specifications for a secure, scalable, standards-based way for participants (including providers, laboratories, hospitals, pharmacies and patients) to send encrypted health information directly to known, trusted recipients over the Internet. In a related blog post, Dr. Doug Fridsma, Director of ONC's Office of Standards and Interoperability, described how the "broad reach of so many significant national players is helping the project reach its goal of providing healthcare stakeholders with universal addressing and universal access to secure direct messaging of health information across the U.S." Click here to read the full blog post. Click here to learn more about the Direct Project..

CMS Launches New Innovation Center Website

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) recently launched a new website for the $10 billion Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation. The Center, created by the healthcare reform law, is asking for feedback on ways to improve the healthcare system for Medicare, Medicaid, and CHIP beneficiaries. The new site is available at http://innovations.cms.gov.

State Documentation of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities to Inform Strategic Action

A recent report prepared by the National Academy for State Health Policy (NASHP) for the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) summarizes how leading states analyze state and federal race/ethnicity data in strategic plans and reports aimed at reducing racial and ethnic disparities in health status and health care. It features Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Maryland, New Jersey, New Mexico, Rhode Island, and Utah. Their lessons can provide guidance for state efforts to launch or enhance health equity, consumer engagement, quality improvement, or cost containment initiatives. Click here to read the full report.

American College of Surgeons Welcomes AMIA Leader to New Post

Don E. Detmer, MD, FACMI, who most recently held the position of AMIA Senior Advisor and served as AMIA President and CEO from 2004–2009, has been named Medical Director of the Advocacy and Health Policy Division at the American College of Surgeons (ACS). Last fall, in recognition of his longstanding efforts to advance the field of biomedical and health informatics, Dr. Detmer received AMIA’s highest honor, the prestigious Morris F. Collen Award. He is also Professor Emeritus and Professor of Medical Education at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, and Visiting Professor at the Centre for Health Informatics and Multiprofessional Education (CHIME) at University College London, London, UK.

Executive Director David B. Hoyt welcomed Don to ACS saying, "Dr. Detmer's credentials represent a unique blend of surgical training and practice, health policy leadership, and biomedical informatics expertise. In addition to his significant health policy background, he brings a wealth of visionary experience in medical informatics and participation in the activities of the Institute of Medicine to our organization. We all look forward to working with him in advancing those areas of health policy that affect surgeons and their patients in a rapidly changing healthcare environment."

Don’s appointment at ACS starts immediately. To read more, click here.

RTI Hosts HIT Policy Forum

RTI International, which recently signed on as Corporate Sponsor of AMIA’s PHI 2011 Conference, is hosting a series of policy forums. The third of seven forums running through the end of Spring, takes place April 14, at the National Press Club in Washington, DC. It is titled, Patients as Partners in Care: Engaging Patients Through Health IT. A diverse group of experts in patient-centered care will explore the issues, challenges, and opportunities created by these new and emerging technologies and evolving systems of care. They will also discuss the types of policies that can accelerate patient and provider adoption of health IT, as well as how mobile and social technologies impact patient engagement. For more information about the policy forum, click here, or visit www.rti.org.