Medical Organizations Urge Use of Existing CCR Standard

Resist the urge to "let perfect be the enemy of the good," urged the Academy and 11 other medical professional organizations in a Nov. 10 letter (PDF file: 3 pages / 21 KB. More about PDFs.) to HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt. The letter recommended the use of an existing continuity of care standard in proposed personal health record projects.

The continuity of care record, or CCR, standard, developed over the past two years by the American Society for Testing and Materials and recently voted on and approved by ASTM members, "is naturally suited to this purpose," said the letter. Using the standard will help deliver the "near-term results to patients and consumers" that were proposed at the first meeting of the American Health Information Community convened by Leavitt Oct. 7 in Washington, the letter noted.

"We applaud this direction for AHIC and wish to work with you to put the puzzle pieces together," said the organizations, because a personal health record "will improve the quality and safety of care through greater continuity of patient health information."

The existing CCR standard is consistent with long-term national health information technology solutions for a variety of reasons, continued the letter, including these:

"The CCR standard is a robust technology that offers a substantial near-term opportunity to empower patients and consumers while also serving as a foundational building block upon which to place additional components of the future national health information network," said the letter.

Other organizations signing the letter included AMA, American Academy of Pediatrics, American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, American Osteopathic Association and American College of Emergency Physicians.