The National Alliance for Health Information Technology Announces New Leadership and Strategic Alliances

At its recent membership meeting, the National Alliance for Health Information Technology (NAHIT) announced new leadership and a new strategic and operating framework for promoting and influencing the efficient and effective use of health information technology (IT) to achieve safer, higher-quality and more affordable health care. The changes support a sharpened focus by the organization on the intersection of health IT and health care delivery.

The board of directors announced that it has recruited George Lynn, former chief executive and president of AtlantiCare and past chairman of the American Hospital Association (AHA), and John Glaser, vice president and chief information officer of Partners HealthCare System Inc. and CHIME Fellow, to serve as its co-chairs. The board of directors also named Jane Horowitz, formerly NAHIT's vice president and chief marketing officer, as its new chief operating officer.

"With George, John and Jane, we have put in place the right leadership to take NAHIT forward," says Curt Selquist, who is stepping down as interim chief executive and board chairman but will continue to serve as a board member. "Having launched and led many of NAHIT's major initiatives, Jane is a critical link to our organization's accomplishments and its uniquely successful approach to consensus-building among all health care sectors."

To strengthen its efforts in addressing health IT as a strategic, rather than a purely technology issue for senior executives, NAHIT has established formal alliances with the AHA and College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME), both founding members of NAHIT in 2002. AHA is providing core staff, back-office support and other services that provide connections to critical distribution and education channels and linkages with leaders across the field. CHIME, too, will contribute full-time staff and functional support for key NAHIT member services such as education, communication, web site and content development and connections with over 1,200 information and technology leaders and providers of IT products and services. UCLA Medical Sciences chief information officer and CHIME chairman Rodney Dykehouse also has joined NAHIT's board.

"Health IT is fundamental to the advancement of the U.S. health care delivery system," says Neil Jesuele, AHA executive vice-president and NAHIT board member who led NAHIT's transition team. "Providers and other stakeholders across health care focused on IT-enabled patient care know it is central to any significant progress in quality, safety and efficiency. There's much at stake, and NAHIT has a pivotal role to play in ensuring we get it right."

"NAHIT builds common ground and purpose not only among organizations across health care but among senior executives in different disciplines, such as, operations, finance, strategy, clinical, and technology," says Richard A. Correll, CHIME president and chief executive. "NAHIT brings a unique ability to develop actionable, consensus-based solutions that help improve each organization while improving health care for all of us."

In the next month, NAHIT will transition its work with the Healthcare Supply Chain Standards Coalition to GS1 Healthcare US and wrap up the health IT definitions project for the Office of the National Coordinator of Health Information Technology. At the same time, Horowitz, the board and members are working to determine NAHIT's next initiatives.

"One of our greatest strengths is our representation and consensus-building across health care, and that won't change. But we are sharpening our focus on supporting and empowering the process to deliver more effective and efficient patient-focused care," says Horowitz.

"In the six years since forming NAHIT and seeing tremendous progress on health IT, it has become crystal clear that providers working in tandem with other stakeholders will determine the success or failure of leveraging technology to create a more efficient, safe, unified and patient-focused health system," explains co-chair George Lynn. "Whether it's widespread use of interoperable electronic health records or automating the health care supply chain through global data standards, major advances will only come about if we work together in developing solutions and implementing IT by engaging providers, suppliers, manufacturers and other partners," concludes co-chair John Glaser. "This is what excites me about the possibilities associated with NAHIT."

About NAHIT

The National Alliance for Health Information Technology is a diverse partnership of senior executives from all health care sectors that promotes, influences and supports the effective use of information technology (IT) needed to create change in health care. Collaborating with health care and government leaders, NAHIT identifies and develops solutions to major technology issues standing in the way of achieving a safer, higher-quality, more affordable health system. Since its founding in 2002, Chicago-based NAHIT has helped forge consensus and accelerate progress with important initiatives such as developing an industry-endorsed interoperability definition, defining key health IT terms for the Office of the National Coordinator of Health Information Technology, creating a public directory of health IT standards, influence a critical advance in medication safety by helping shape the FDA's recently proposed bar code rule, and authoring Rules of Engagement: A proven path for instilling, and then installing a CPOE approach that works. NAHIT is a co-founder of the Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology (CCHIT) and founder of the Healthcare Supply Chain Standards Coalition, now part of GS1 Healthcare US. For more information, visit the web site at www.nahit.org.

About AHA

The AHA is a not-for-profit association of health care provider organizations and individuals that are committed to the health improvement of their communities. The AHA is the national advocate for its members, which includes 5,000 hospitals, health care systems, networks, other providers of care and over 38,000 individual members. Founded in 1898, the AHA provides education for health care leaders and is a source of information on health care issues and trends. For more information, visit the Web site at www.aha.org.

About CHIME

The College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) was formed with the dual objectives of serving the professional development needs of healthcare CIOs and advocating the more effective use of information management within healthcare. CHIME's events and activities were designed to reflect that purpose, including CIO-oriented surveys, education programs, and networking activities. With membership of over 1,200 CIOs, CHIME has established itself as the premier organization serving the needs of healthcare CIOs. CHIME's educational initiatives are supported by the CHIME Foundation, a group of 57 providers of healthcare IS products and services. To learn more about CHIME and the CHIME Foundation, see www.cio-chime.org.

http://www.dotmed.com/news/story/6220/

Business Financial Services

The National Alliance for Health Information Technology Announces New Leadership and Strategic Alliances