Summer Camp Is Over for HITSC and the Homework Looks Good

After six months of extensive work, including “Summer Camp,”  the Health IT Standards Committee (HITSC) has delivered a new round of standards recommendations that significantly move the ball forward in interoperability.

As John Halamka notes in his blog, these recommendations are an important step forward in supporting Meaningful Use Stage 2.

The HITSC work groups delivered four recommended standards:

• Certificates,
• Provider Directories,
• Lab Result Reporting, and
• Transfer of Care Summaries.

At the September meeting of the HITSC, these standards will be reviewed, as well as the other efforts of the S&I framework.

Perhaps equally important is the strategy being considered to evaluate these new standards – “Best is the enemy of good” (Well said, John).

The real objective is (and should be) to move forward with standards that advance the process and allow the SDOs to continue their refinement and continue to advance health information exchange.

Lastly, a quick “well done” to the makeover of the of the HealthIT.gov website: “Putting the “I” in Health IT”. Bravo!

Share your thoughts on HITSC and other standards topics with me here on the HIMSS Blog.