Fourteen medical organizations have formed the Physicians Electronic Health Record Coalition, and the Academy announced the new alliance at the recent health information technology summit in Washington, D.C.
AAFP Executive Vice President Douglas Henley, M.D., shared news about PEHRC while participating in a “reactor panel” on clinical leadership. He said the groups in the coalition represent more than 500,000 physicians.
Henley explained that one of PEHRC's objectives is to help develop a certification process for health IT products that will give physicians the confidence to invest in EHR systems. (Read more about PEHRC at http://www.aafp.org/x28539.xml.)
Earlier in the summit, both David Brailer, M.D., Ph.D., HHS' national coordinator for health information technology, and HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson spoke of the need for just such a certification process. They said it should come from the private sector rather than the federal government.
Introducing Henley at the summit, Brailer said, "One of the most entrepreneurial associations that I know of is the American Academy of Family Physicians. Their Center for Health Information Technology is innovative, experimental and sets the pace." The AAFP has taken a leadership role that is constructive to all, Brailer said.
Stepping to the podium, Henley said, "Now the fun really begins as we transform a vision into reality." Addressing Brailer, he added, "We stand with you to do just that, sir."
Henley also spoke about the AAFP's passion for electronic health records, saying it is driven by the reality that physicians "need this technology to help us do our jobs better."
"The amount of data that a single physician or any clinician needs today to provide the best care simply exceeds individual human cognition,' he said.
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