Security and Privacy are Foundational to "Meaningful Use"

Today (Monday May 11, 2009), I attended two meetings. The first was the HIT Policy Committee that ran from 7:30 a.m. - 10:15 a.m. (CST). The second was the Medication Terminology Harmonization Project , that ran from 1:00 p.m. - 2:00 p.m. (CST).

Shortly after I connected with the HIT Policy site, the application ran into a problem and was forced to close, so I continued on audio only.

Clearly the committee viewed privacy and security as foundational concepts. One of the committee members said that individuals worried about, "Who's going to get my record."

Judith Faulkner of Epic said that from the vendors' standpoint the privacy and security "meaningful use" requirements should be: "crisp, clear and doable."

After the call ended, I sent an email with the comment that from a patient's standpoint the definition of "meaningful use" should be: "crisp, clear and understandable".

Recently I reviewed the Webcast of the March 13, 2009, meeting of Wisconsin's eHealth Care Quality and Safety Board.

During a discussion of the future role of the Board, several committee members expressed the opinion that the future role of the Board be broader than just"Health Information Exchange (HIE)". The representative from Epic was particularly emphatic in presenting the view that components of individuals medical records are enmeshed in other components and looking only at HIE is much too restrictive.

Clearly, security and privacy from a patient-centric view are foundational to the Health IT Policy Committee's efforts to improve health care in the US. Hopefully, the Department of Health Services (DHS) will allow Wisconsin's eHealth Board to take a broader view of health IT and consider the role that "patient ownership" of health care records plays in improving the health of Wisconsin's citizens.