February 5, 2010 12:00 PM - 1:30 PM EST Health Information Technology Committee Regular Meeting February 5, 2010 Meeting Minutes Teleconference Participants: Mark Boxer, Co-chair; Marie Smith, Co-chair; Robert Aseltine; Jody Bishop-Pullan; Meg Hooper; Alex Hutchinson; Enrique Juncadella; Ryan O’Connell; Robert Tessier; Colleen Rooney; Victor Villagra; Jamie Mooney Office of the Healthcare Advocate: Absent: John Brady; Angelo Carraba; Pam Cucinelli; Jeffrey Kramer; Steve O’Neill Mark Boxer opened the teleconference by welcoming all Committee members. Colleen Rooney gave this presentation on The Market View of State Health Information Exchange. Colleen said that there was a pilot program in Meg Hooper said that many of the Community Health Centers have already received stimulus funding for capitol improvements and implementation of HIT. There is at least one ONC BEACON application from Marie Smith said that the CT Department of Social Services was a recipient of the first round of the CMS Medicaid Transformation Grants with a focus on e-prescribing and health information exchange (HIE). This grant is being used to build an HIE for CT Medicaid beneficiaries. As part of this grant, she is involved with a pilot project to build a comprehensive active medication profile for Medicaid beneficiaries that would be available to all licensed health care professionals through the HIE. She noted that it is important to know the specific functionality and features of a practice’s EHR/e-prescribing system. The pilot project she is involved with is demonstrating that having an EHR/e-prescribing system does not provide a patient’s comprehensive medication profile that would be critical for a clinician to review in an HIE. Victor Villagra spoke of a project that he’s engaged in that examines the use of HIT in promoting and facilitating care coordination in public and private organizations. He said that he initiated this project and then it was adopted by E-Health Initiatives, a non-profit organization based in Marie asked how this project is funded. Victor said that a pharmaceutical company is providing funding. Subgroup Reports Meg said that the Organizational subgroup is still in the process of coordinating schedules, so has not met yet. Meg reported that the Federal Health Reform subgroup has decided how to proceed and is developing materials for the Committee to look at. Alex said that the Logistics subgroup focused on reviewing the language of the Logistics section of the workplan. The group has made some recommendations to the co-chairs. Where the workplan calls for recommending vendors for HIT, the group felt that this was too narrow a goal, so rather than recommending vendors, the goal should be broadened to include recommending a strategy for adopting HIT. Ryan O’Connell said that the subgroup wants to contact CT Hospital Association and other organizations to compile a list of recommended vendors. Alex said that the subgroup also needs to consider managing the growth of the vendors used in the system so that the system isn’t overwhelmed. Alex said that there are hospitals that have already begun developing and implementing HIT systems, so the Committee will need to consider integrating some of the things currently being used, rather than developing recommendations around what already exists. Alex also said that there is a need for an inventory of all the different IT exchange initiatives in the state. Jamie Mooney said that the work done in this Committee will be driven by the work of several other Committees, specifically Medical Home, so it will be important to keep their efforts in mind. She also said that it is vital to pay attention to the HIT Exchange Committee to learn what’s going on in the state as a whole. Marie said that she and Mark have agreed to keep tabs on what the other Committees are doing. She will review what the Medical Home and Provider Advisory Committees are doing, and Mark will be covering the Health Disparities and Preventive Healthcare Committees. Alex reported that the Market Research/Outreach subgroup is planning to meet next week. Meeting was adjourned. Next meeting will be February 19, 2010 at noon |