Health IT standards development likely to speed up

With some core data already defined, it's looking like the pace of health IT standards development is likely to pick up. According to John Halamka, chairman of the Healthcare Information Technology Standards Panel (HITSP), with standards in place for some areas--including biosurveillance, consumer empowerment and electronic health record exchange of lab data--moving ahead is going to be easier than it has been in the past. Halamka, CIO of Harvard Medical School, says that this year, HITSP will focus on patient-provider secure messaging, personalized healthcare, public health case reporting, remote monitoring/consultations and care transfers. As soon as 2009, vendors should begin to incorporate HITSP standards into their products, he predicts.

To learn more about health IT standards development progress:
- read this Healthcare IT News piece

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