Statement on the Improving Health Information Technology Act of 2015 Legislation

The following statement was released today by Douglas B. Fridsma, M.D., PhD., FACP, FACMI, President and CEO, American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA).

AMIA appreciates the work and bipartisanship demonstrated by Chairman Alexander, Ranking Member Murray and the entire HELP Committee in crafting the Improving Health Information Technology Act of 2015. We are pleased to see that numerous recommendations found in the Report of the AMIA EHR 2020 Task Force on the Status and Future Direction of EHRs are reflected in the legislation. Specifically, AMIA supports provisions meant to:

• Address regulatory and administrative burden, especially as it relates to clinical documentation and data capture;
• Make information demonstrating how health IT was certified publicly available, especially by including screenshots and video demonstrations;
• Clearly define interoperability as the exchange of health data and the use of such data without special effort;
• Provide patients access to a complete copy of their health information from an electronic record in a computable format; and
• Ensure accurate patient information for the correct patient.

We look forward to continued collaboration to ensure that patients have complete access to their health data; that we have the sufficient technical building blocks needed for quality, research and public health; and that we test what matters as part of the health IT certification program.  We are hopeful today’s markup can be a springboard towards continued bipartisanship and sustained commitment to improving health IT for clinicians and the patients they serve.