The Academy recently led seven other medical specialty organizations in an appeal to America's Health Insurance Plans to utilize a single standard for the content and message structure utilized in personal health record projects. The AAFP's actions come in the face of "an emerging trend by AHIP members" to launch PHR projects that will give physicians and patients the ability to view personal health data via a secure Web site.
"PHRs that conform to a single standard will enable interoperability," said the Nov. 4 letter (PDF file: 2 pages / 19 KB. More about PDFs.) to AHIP President and CEO Karen Ignagni. "A single standard will allow data "to be read and interpreted by both people and computer systems."
Interoperability means data from patients' electronic health records could flow from health plans to medical practice computers and from portable storage devices to any computer system.
"We must avoid the situation in which multiple proprietary and nonstandard PHRs are launched by AHIP members," said the letter. "This could increase administrative tasks of retyping and hand-entering data in the physician's office and clinics and might actually introduce new opportunities for error and confusion rather than contribute to their reduction."
An attachment to the letter drove home the contention that failure to adopt a single national standard for data elements and data representation within PHRs would dramatically reduce their value. "It would be similar to the Tower of Babel, with all parties speaking foreign languages with respect to the PHR," said the attachment.
"We invite AHIP to join us in supporting a single standard that will enable PHR and EHR interoperability, as anything less will lead to chaos, confusion and increased inefficiencies," the letter concluded.
The following organizations joined the Academy in its request to AHIP: The American Academy of Dermatology Association, American Academy of Neurology, American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists, American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons, American College of Foot and Ankle Surgeons, American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and American Osteopathic Association.
