US gov't certifies 20 electronic health record products

24.07.2006
In a move to bolster the acceptance of electronic health record tools by doctors who may be wary of the cost of the software and potential interoperability problems, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services last week announced the first 20 EHR products to be certified to meet national standards. Users said the certifications will help reassure them that the products they have purchased will eventually interoperate with other software as they begin to exchange patient information regionally.

The tools -- designed to be used in physicians' offices -- were certified by the Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology. The voluntary private-sector organization was created in 2004 by three industry associations to certify health IT products. The goals of the certification program are to reduce the risk of IT investment by physicians, ensure the interoperability of the products and protect the privacy of patient health information.

Tom Fricks, CIO at Harbin Clinic in Rome, Ga., said it was reassuring to see that the TouchWorks Electronic Health Record software from Allscripts LLC that the practice rolled out between 2002 and the end of 2005 was among the certified products. In 2002, when Harbin Clinic purchased the software, "it was hard to figure out who the players were going to be when the dust settled" in the EHR market, he said.

However, the most significant aspect of the announcement for his organization, Fricks said, was the commission's work to certify interoperability of the different software packages.

Although the clinic's 130 doctors represent about half of the town's physician population, Harbin is the only group in Rome that has an advanced EHR system in place, he said.

"It's reassuring ... that there is the potential for those groups to come up on an [EHR system] that will allow us to exchange information with them," Fricks said.