CHICAGO - Dec. 10, 2009 - The Certification Commission for Health Information Technology today announced three appointees to its board of trustees, and named five new commissioners, whose terms begin Jan. 1, 2010.
"In a continuation of the strong interest in voluntary participation in the Commission's work, we received nearly 70 applications for the trustee positions and 100 for the Commission openings," said Frank Trembulak, executive vice president and chief operating officer of Geisinger Health System, and incoming chair of the Commission's board of trustees. "Given the high caliber of the applying candidates, this was a challenging selection process. We thank all those who expressed interest and hope they will take advantage of future opportunities as they arise. As the Commission continues to expand its programs, we expect to have new opportunities for participation in advisory groups, work groups and public comment periods."
The nine-member board of trustees has fiduciary responsibility for the not-for-profit organization and provides leadership in the areas of fiscal oversight and stewardship of assets, organizational strategy, evaluation of senior management, and resolution of any conflicts of interest involving the Commission's management and its board of commissioners. Trustees serve three-year staggered terms. The new appointees are:
- Lori Evans, M.P.H., Chief Executive Officer, Active Health Provider
- William Jessee, M.D., President and Chief Executive Officer, Medical Group Management Association
- Stephen Klasko, M.D., M.B.A., Chief Executive Officer, University of South Florida Health and Dean, College of Medicine
The full updated list of trustees is available at http://cchit.org/about/trustees.
The board of commissioners guides and approves the work of the voluntary work groups and staff as they develop certification criteria, inspection processes and policy. The Commission solicited applications from senior executives representing a wide range of stakeholders across the public and private sectors of health care and health IT. Commissioners serve two-year terms on the 21-member board. The new commissioners are:
- Patricia Becker, M.B.A., Vice President and Chief Information Officer, University HealthSystem Consortium
- Barbara Byrne, M.D., Vice President, Information Systems, Edward Hospital
- Timothy Elwell M.B.A., Vice President, Misys Open Source Solutions
- Jay Srini, M.S., M.B.A., Chief Innovation Officer, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center
- Grace Terrell, M.D., M.M.M., President and Chief Executive Officer, Cornerstone Health Care P.A.
The following commissioners were reappointed to another two-year term:
- Linda Hogan, Ph.D., Assistant Dean and Professor, College of Medicine, Director, Medical Informatics Department, The Commonwealth Medical College
- Rick Ratliff, Group Executive, Executive Vice President of Customers and Markets, Surescripts
- David Ross, Sc.D., Executive Director, Public Health Informatics Institute
The full updated list of commissioners is available at: http://cchit.org/about/commission.
Search for new chair begins
The board of trustees has initiated a national search for a successor to the Commission chair following Mark Leavitt, M.D., Ph.D.'s Nov. 13 announcement of retirement. Mr. Trembulak chairs the search committee which includes trustees Tom Fritz, of Inland Northwest Health Services, Spokane, Wash., and John Tooker, M.D, executive vice president and chief executive officer of the American College of Physicians, and commissioners Abha Agrawal, M.D., director of medical informatics and associate medical director, Kings County Hospital, Brooklyn, N.Y. and Andrew Wiesenthal, M.D., associate executive director, clinical information support, The Permanente Federation. The search for this position is being led by Egon Zehnder International, Chicago.
Other updates
The Commission plans to open public comment at http://cchit.org from Dec. 14, 2009 through Jan. 12, 2010 on the first round of criteria for Long Term and Post Acute Care (LTPAC) EHRs. The first priority for this new domain is development of a core set of criteria for the collection of care settings encompassed in LTPAC and specific criteria for the first two settings - skilled nursing facilities and home health agencies - identified as priorities by the Commission's LTPAC Advisory Task Force. These certification programs are scheduled for a July 2010 launch.
The Certification Commission continues to announce new additions to the first group of products certified under its two new programs - CCHIT Certified® 2011 Comprehensive, and Preliminary ARRA 2011 - launched on Oct. 7, 2009. Both programs inspect electronic health record (EHR) technology for the first time against proposed Federal standards to support providers in qualifying for 2011-2012 incentives under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA). An updated list of products is available at http://www.cchit.org/products.
About CCHIT
The Certification Commission for Health Information Technology (CCHIT®) is an independent, 501(c)3 nonprofit organization that has been recognized by the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) since 2006 as an official certification body for electronic health records (EHR). Its public mission is to accelerate the adoption of robust, interoperable health information technology. More information on CCHIT, CCHIT Certified® products and Preliminary ARRA certified technology is available at http://cchit.org and http://ehrdecisions.com.
"CCHIT®" and "CCHIT Certified®" are registered trademarks of the Certification Commission for Health Information Technology.