By Stephanie Jamison (Greenway Well being), Chair, EHR Affiliation Govt Committee

It’s been 20 years since 21 of the trade’s main EHR distributors got here collectively to create the HIMSS EHR Vendor Affiliation in 2004 to speed up the widespread adoption of EHRs. The brand new affiliation was additionally tasked with serving to HIMSS set up its strategic course and official positions on points associated to the EHR and offering enter and suggestions on the certification course of established by CCHIT.

Now known as the EHR Affiliation, what began as a daring idea continues to be going sturdy in 2024 with a present membership base of 29 firms: opponents working collaboratively to advance well being information interoperability, safely embrace new applied sciences, and enhance the standard and effectivity of care. Our preliminary deal with furthering the initiatives specified by the Well being IT Strategic Framework, launched in July 2004 by the Workplace of the Nationwide Coordinator for Well being Data Expertise (now often called the Assistant Secretary for Expertise Coverage, or ASTP), has expanded and developed together with the state and federal regulatory setting.

On the time, founding Chair Charlene Underwood described the institution of the EHR Affiliation as a historic alternative to straight influence healthcare supply within the US, noting within the press launch saying the brand new affiliation that “EHR expertise has confirmed its capability to make healthcare safer, extra environment friendly, and extra handy for sufferers in addition to suppliers.

“As EHR distributors,” she continued, “we’ve got a duty to our prospects to form the way forward for interoperability for efficient and safe sharing of affected person information, and to the nation to advertise the widespread adoption of this life-saving expertise.”

As we speak’s well being IT market is vastly completely different from these early years when hospital EHR adoption was 9% and office-based doctor observe adoption was 17%. Now, effectively over 96% of hospitals and 78% of physicians use an EHR, most of that are licensed by way of the ASTP-driven course of. Within the years since its institution, lots of the EHR Affiliation’s founding member firms have gone by way of acquisitions or mergers, and new entrants have stepped up.

The Developer’s Voice

The Affiliation’s report of accomplishments since 2004 displays the well being IT market’s evolution. Over time, we’ve labored to make sure our members’ voices have been heard on regulatory and coverage problems with vital significance to each EHR builders and the suppliers utilizing our applied sciences. We’ve met with policymakers and submitted feedback on every thing from significant use and requirements improvement to the Nationwide Well being Data Change and TEFCA to the 21^st Century Cures Act and, most just lately, HTI-1 and HTI-2.

Our efforts weren’t restricted to providing suggestions and suggestions, nonetheless. We’ve held quite a few Congressional Briefings over time, specializing in points such because the position of EHRs in value-based care and the twenty first Century Cures Act, in addition to COVID-19 and well being IT, info blocking, and social determinants of well being and well being fairness.

We’ve additionally leveraged our collective experience to offer member firms with instruments to navigate a tumultuous regulatory panorama. This consists of publishing the trade’s first EHR Developer Code of Conduct reflecting our members’ dedication to supporting secure healthcare supply, fostering continued innovation, and working with excessive integrity available in the market—a dedication we keep to this present day.

Social Initiatives

The Affiliation has additionally discovered methods to make use of our collective experience and expertise to help social wants. We have been barely a 12 months previous once we joined forces with HL7 and HIMSS for catastrophe response efforts following Hurricane Katrina. The purpose was “to alleviate the great lack of healthcare info by the sufferers and suppliers of the Gulf area affected by the hurricanes within the fall of 2005,” with the Affiliation designing and profiling an emergency HIE with low boundaries to entry for extraction of abstract scientific info from native EHRs.

We later lent our help as an implementation accomplice of text4baby, a free well being textual content messaging service that supplied info to pregnant ladies and new moms.

The EHR Affiliation additionally focused the nation’s opioid disaster with quite a few actions, together with the publication of Opioid Tapering Implementation Information for EHRs. Earlier than that, in 2019, we joined the ECRI Institute’s Partnership for Well being IT Affected person Security to create steering for safer opioid prescribing by way of EHRs, printed CDC Opioid Guideline – Implementation Information for Digital Well being Data, and held a Congressional Briefing on the nationwide disaster.

As we speak’s EHR Affiliation

Just like the trade we serve, the EHR Affiliation itself has developed in tandem with our collective applied sciences. We proceed our mission to enhance the standard and effectivity of care with modern, interoperable well being IT adoption and use by way of the efforts of 9 workgroups and 4 process forces, every devoted to a singular side of well being IT regulation, adoption, and/or utilization. Most just lately, we added workstreams particular to synthetic intelligence and privateness and consent administration, reflecting altering dynamics within the well being IT coverage setting.

The EHR Affiliation has achieved an excellent deal over the previous twenty years, and our members’ ardour for the work stays even because the scope of each necessities and alternatives grows annually. Please be part of us as we rejoice 20 years of achievements and sit up for one other 20 years of accomplishments on behalf of our numerous membership.