WASHINGTON – The Health IT Standards Committee and its twin Health IT Policy Committee, headed by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology and created under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, began their work May 11.

Federal officials and panel members said the groups face steep challenges ahead to meet deadlines established under the new law.

The committees must have an initial set of standards completed by Dec. 31. Initial recommendations on “meaningful use” – required by providers to be paid bonuses under Medicare – are due within a month or so.
David Blumenthal, MD, national coordinator for health information technology and chairman of the policy committee, said the committees would be looking to the Bush administration standards harmonization committee, the Healthcare Information Technology Standards Panel (HITSP), as a good place to start. HITSP chairman John Halamka, MD, is now also the vice chairman of the new standards committee.

The four elements likely to be included in meaningful use are electronic prescribing, laboratory reporting, clinical summaries for care coordination and quality data, Halamka said.
Blumenthal will serve as chairman of the policy committee.

The new committees will take the place of the old advisory committee under the Bush administration, known as the American Health Information Community, or AHIC. AHIC’s successor will continue to play a role that has not yet been defined, Blumenthal said. Of the new panels Blumenthal said, “it would be foolish to assemble a group of people with as wide and diverse experience as these people and not take their recommendations very seriously; and I will.”