==Intergovernmental Advisory Board Teleconference - Minutes ==    (3377)

American Council for Technology, Thursday February 23, 2006 2:00 -3:00 PM (Eastern)    (335T)

Attendees:    (336P)

Introduction and Opening Remarks – John Clark for Denis Gusty    (3372)

• John extended IAB Chair Denis Gusty regrets for being unable to attend the teleconference due to an urgent conflict in his schedule, and he looks forward to participating in the next call.    (335X)

• Mr. Jack Belcher, CIO Arlington County, Virginia, was introduced as a new local IAB member. Jack is the first CIO for Arlington County, where he is also the Director of Technology Services.    (335Y)

• Mr. Belcher’s background includes positions with the International Monetary Fund, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the U.S. House of Representatives where he led initiatives to deploy electronic mail and the Internet at the Congress.    (335Z)

• On September 11, 2001, Mr. Belcher’s office notably provided direct technological support for the County’s First Responders and the County’s Emergency Operations Center (EOC), which coordinated the region’s response to the Pentagon crisis.    (3360)

• Col. Brian Cullis, Executive Director DoD Defense Installation Spatial Data Infrastructure (DISDI) was announced as the latest federal IAB member. However, He was represented on the call by Mr. Daniel Feinberg, the Chief Architect of DISDI. The DISDI is a DoD mission capability comprised of the people, policies and practices necessary to acquire, steward and share installation, environmental and range geospatial data for defense, federal and national goals.    (3361)

== Highlights from Last Meeting Held Tuesday, September 27, 2005 – John Clark ==    (3362)

• Mr. Patrick McCreary of DOJ was introduced as a new federal IAB member. Pat provided an overview of his background and work as an Associate Deputy Director with the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA), Office of Justice Programs, and U.S. Department of Justice.    (3363)

• Pat has shepherded into existence the Global Justice XML Data Model (JXDM), a Data Dictionary for sharing criminal justice information which is used by more than 200 state, local and federal criminal justice and law enforcement agencies.    (3364)

• Marc Wine of GSA briefed the group on the status the IAB project to publish a report titled, "Government Health IT, Transforming Health Care and Empowering Citizens". The report will present 17 case studies documenting best practices in health information technology from around the world.    (3365)

== Presentation on the Regional Health Information Organization (RHIO) Federation – David Clark, Health Information Management Systems Society (HIMSS)==    (3366)

• David Clark, Director for Integration and Interoperability for HIMSS, discussed the mission and actions of the RHIO Federation in the context of supporting President Bush’s goal to make electronic health records available for most Americans by 2014.    (3367)

• RHIOs are organizations of collaborative public and private healthcare entities, that seek to enable the exchange and use of health information in a secure manner for the purpose of promoting the improvement of health quality, safety and efficiency in a defined geographic community. Dr. David Brailer, the national coordinator for health information technology, would like to see RHIOs established in every state. RHIOs should be important for intergovernmental agencies related to healthcare missions because they represent the grassroots movement in developing a nationwide health information network for data exchange.    (3368)

• The RHIOs generally are nonprofit organizations composed of community institutions, such as public and private hospitals, government agencies, physicians, insurers, laboratories, employers and consumers. They must develop a governance structure for smoothly guiding the terms of authority over such issues as legal and ethical uses of health data, security and confidentially requirements, and strategies of data and information sharing.    (3369)

• The mission of the RHIO Federation is to improve the quality, safety and efficiency of patient care by equipping RHIOs, and the professionals engaged in their development, with the resources needed to enhance the power of health information exchange. The RHIO Federation Task Force Work Groups focus on education and leadership regarding consistent data definitions, position statements, special projects, and the RHIO Guidebook.    (336A)

• The Health IT Dashboard is a free Web-based reference tool available at the HIT Dashboard Website: www.hitdashboard.com that supports managers and the public with tracking for 500-plus government and private projects, Health Information Exchanges, and quality-based information. The RHIO Federation plans to hold up to five regional symposiums nationwide this year in the northeast, south, midwest, west and northwest.    (336B)

For more information contact: David Clark, HIMSS, at dclark@himss.org or visit the RHIO Federation Website at: www.rhiofederation.org.    (336C)

Presentation – The Health Care Standards Landscape (HCSL) tool, Outline Reference Source for Developing Health Care Data Standards – Tom Rhodes, National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST)    (3373)

• Tom Rhodes, Project Lead, Information Technology Laboratory, Software Diagnostics, Conformance Testing Division of NIST, discussed the Web-based HCSL. This was developed as part of the NIST Information Technology Laboratory’s Health Information Technology (HIT) project as an Internet reference tool that helps managers with developing data measurements, standards, and technology to improve the quality, safety and cost-effectiveness of healthcare delivery systems and processes.    (336E)

• The HCSL is available to the public on the NIST Web Server. The site is user-friendly, interactive and contains a downloadable User Guide. Data content may be entered or updated through screen forms or imported as XML files to support manager’s adoption and use of compatible standards in planning and development of projects.    (336F)

• The many different initiatives underway by various standards development organizations make it a sizeable challenge to monitor and track the overall standards landscape. Therefore, as an open Web-based service, the HCSL tool assists organizations like government agencies, HMISS and the RHIOs, by simplifying the dissemination of healthcare standards information and enhancing their efforts on collaboration and implementation. Readily available standards information is central to developing the local and statewide data exchange networks and electronic health records required to meet the president’s to goal of an EHR for most Americans by 2014.    (336G)

For more information contact Tom Rhodes, NIST, at trhodes@nust.gov or visit the HCSL Web Page at: http://hcsl.sdct.nist.gov.    (336H)

Announcement on “Health IT in Government – Transforming Healthcare and Empowering Citizens,” IAB Report – Marc Wine    (3374)

The current IAB report, “Heath IT in Government - Transforming Healthcare and Empowering Citizens” is completed, being reviewed and recommended for distribution. This report covers 17 case studies which are exemplary of best practices in sharing health information technology, projects and services.    (336J)

Possible Topics for Next IAB Product    (3375)

Members were asked for topic suggestions for the next IAB product. Several members suggested a report on shared services and agreed to provide additional details on how to frame such a broad topic. Members were encouraged to suggest some additional topics for consideration. The following topic suggestions from previous IAB meetings are provided for members’ information and consideration:    (336L)

Next Meeting: Teleconference tentatively scheduled for the April or May timeframe, 2:00 – 3:00 PM (Eastern).    (3376)

Members are asked to submit suggestions for the agenda.    (336N)