HITSP makes changes to meet stimulus requirements

The Healthcare Information Technology Standards Panel, seemingly a forgotten entity since the founding of the federal Health IT Policy Committee and Health IT Standards Committee to advise HHS on implementation of the stimulus legislation, has gotten its EHR specifications in line with what the new law requires. "These approved specifications represent the culmination of some 90 days and 13,000 hours of volunteer effort to meet the requirements of this landmark piece of legislation," said Chairman Dr. John Halamka.

At its July 8 meeting, HITSP approved standards on interoperability, health information exchange, collaboration and systems architecture, some three months after beginning work on mapping previously approved HITSP specifications to the mandates of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. For example, reports Healthcare IT News, the panel determined that its Communicate Hospital Prescriptions Capability would fulfill the ARRA section on interoperability requirements that are meant to support inpatient electronic prescribing.

For more details about HITSP's latest actions:
- see this Healthcare IT News story