Physician IT

Canadians develop US site for EMR analysis

WASHINGTON, D.C. – A new, interactive website to help medical practices compare, select and implement electronic health records (EHRs) has now been launched by AmericanEHR Partners. Founded by the American College of Physicians (ACP) and its partner, Cientis Technologies, AmericanEHR Partners (www.AmericanEHR.com) brings together professional societies and healthcare professionals.

The resulting collaboration provides credible information, tools, and expertise to support the use of health information technology and to improve the delivery of healthcare.

AmericanEHR Partners’s mission is to develop a vibrant online community to support physicians and other healthcare professionals as they adopt and use health IT. It will help medical practices meet the new meaningful use requirements released by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). Beginning in 2011, financial incentives will be available to practices that use certified EHRs to demonstrate the implementation of specific functions to support better healthcare – which is referred to in the CMS rule as “meaningful use.”

“ACP is excited to be working with other professional societies and experts in the health IT field to offer this dynamic new resource to all healthcare professionals who are interested in EHRs and related technology,” said ACP President J. Fred Ralston, Jr., MD. “AmericanEHR Partners is a great resource to help physicians and other healthcare professionals meet Meaningful Use requirements and adapt to the new demands imposed by healthcare reform.”

“It is our goal through AmericanEHR Partners to provide the most comprehensive and trusted online community dedicated to support physicians and their medical office teams in their adoption and use of EHR systems,” said Dr. Alan Brookstone, CEO of Vancouver-based Cientis Technologies. “AmericanEHR Partners brings together a rich set of tools as well as content from the source that physicians trust most: their professional societies.”

Currently Participating Professional Societies include:

• American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology
• American College of Physicians
• American College of Rheumatology
• American Osteopathic Association of Medical Informatics
• American Psychiatric Association
• Infectious Disease Society of America
• Renal Physicians Association
• Society of General Internal Medicine

The American Health Information Management Association, a healthcare information management organization, has joined the community as a Content Partner.

AmericanEHR Partners will help simplify EHR adoption by allowing healthcare professionals to:

• Evaluate readiness to adopt an EHR and provide a list of recommended resources to help overcome identified challenges;
• View comprehensive EHR user ratings on different solutions (ratings are based on surveys of physicians conducted through their professional societies);
• Sort EHR solutions based on medical subspecialty and desired functionality; and
• Provide side-by-side comparisons of EHR systems.

The site also provides educational content though newsletters, podcasts, webinars, blogs, and more.

All EHR products certified by a nationally-recognized certification organization such as CCHIT and any organization approved by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) as an ONC-Authorized Testing and Certification Body (ONC-ATCB) may participate in AmericanEHR Partners. Currently participating vendors are:

• Allscripts
• AmazingCharts.com
• Aprima Medical Software
• athenahealth
• eClinicalWorks
• e-MDs
• GE Healthcare
• Greenway Medical Technologies
• Henry Schein Medical Systems
• Ingenix
• McKesson Corporation
• NextGen Healthcare
• Pulse Systems
• Sage Software
• Sequel Systems
• SuiteMed

AmericanEHR Partners does not endorse any EHR products, services or systems.

AmericanEHR Partners is holding a free, national webinar, “Meaningful Use and Its Implications For Your Practice,” featuring Dr. David Blumenthal, National Coordinator for Health Information Technology and Dr. Michael Zaroukian, Chief Medical Information Officer for Michigan State University. The webinar is scheduled for August 4, 2010 at 7:00 p.m. EST. Registration information is posted at: www.americanehr.com/education/webinars. Funding to support the webinar has been provided by Hewlett-Packard.

For more information about the program, please visit www.AmericanEHR.com.

The American College of Physicians is the largest medical specialty organization and the second-largest physician group in the United States. ACP members include 130,000 internal medicine physicians (internists), related subspecialists, and medical students. Internists specialize in the prevention, detection, and treatment of illness in adults. Follow ACP on Twitter and Facebook.

Cientis Technologies Inc. is an international developer of web-based tools to assist clinicians and their medical practice teams in the selection, adoption and use of Electronic Health Records systems and related healthcare technologies. The Cientis Technologies platform helps clinicians improve care and enhance efficiency through education on the effective use of health information technology.

Posted July 15, 2010