Health Story Project Offers Perspective on "Meaningful Use" D...( Testimony En...),Health

Testimony Encourages Transmission of Narrative Note Information to the EHR using Existing Standards

Pittsburgh, PA (Vocus) July 22, 2009 -- With almost 20 billion dollars recently earmarked to encourage the adoption of the Electronic Health Record (EHR), The Health Story Project defined "meaningful use of the Certified (EHR)" in its testimony to the National Committee on Vital Health and Statistics' (NCVHS) public hearing in May. The key message; for the creation and exchange of standards-based clinical documentation "meaningful use" must encompass dictation and the detailed narrative. The outcome of this hearing will be submitted to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), along with the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC). The groups will be developing a proposed rule that provides greater detail on the incentive program and proposes a definition of meaningful use in late 2009.

"Because every national Health Information Exchange (HIE) relies on meaningfully, organized clinical information, creating structured documentation that takes the narrative into account from the beginning is crucial to facilitate the electronic exchange of health information," stated Nick van Terheyden, MD, Interim Executive Committee, The Health Story Project and Chief Medical Officer, M*Modal.

The Health Story Project, founded by M*Modal, American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA), The Association for Healthcare Documentation Integrity (AHDI), and Medical Transcription Industry Association (MTIA) works to develop data standards for common types of electronic healthcare documents to facilitate the smooth transition from unstructured narrative documentation to structured, discrete, and computer-interpretable electronic documentation that will support standardized electronic health records (EHRs). '/>"/>