Website to Promote and Advance Dialogue on "Meaningful Use”

Meanigfuluse.org, a new collaborative website will provide the healthcare information technology (HIT) community a single, central location to access resources, collaborate, influence, and discuss the definition of "meaningful use", and to learn how to take advantage of the U.S. federal stimulus funds.

Formed by Compuware Corporation (Detroit, MI, USA) and the Association of Medical Directors of Information Systems (AMDIS, Lake Almanor, CA, USA), meaningfuluse.org is a community website that provides a variety of resources on the term "meaningful use", including an open discussion forum to learn from, discuss, and collaborate with peers; a news source to see industry-related articles rated by peers for relevance; a resource warehouse to find relevant web links to government or third-party sites that contain helpful references on the topic; and Really Simple Syndication (RSS) feeds on various discussion boards and news to stay abreast of the latest conversations and announcements.

"As thought leaders in applied healthcare IT, chief medical information officers (CMIOs) will greatly benefit from meaningfuluse.org because this topic is of key importance to accomplishing the critical mass of HIT implementation in America," said William F. Bria, M.D., AMDIS Board President, and CMIO at Shriners Hospital for Children (Tampa, FL, USA). "Interoperability, which is often mentioned as a characteristic of EMR systems, is in fact the issue of transmission of necessary patient information wherever it resides to where it is needed, in a secure, complete and patient-centric manner. We all are looking forward to achieving this transformation in the delivery of medicine in America."

"Compuware is pleased to support this important web site," said Mike Wilson, Senior IT director of clinical information systems at Compuware. "As the Secretary of Health & Human Services (HHS) narrows down the definition of meaningful use, it's critical that clinicians and the HIT community at-large have a voice in those definitions, so that they will truly be applicable and practical in the clinical practices. Meaningfuluse.org gives clinicians their own online community to openly discuss and influence this important topic."

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act--commonly known as the stimulus bill--is providing billions of U.S. dollars in funding for HIT. However, one of the stipulations for providers to qualify for money is that they must show "meaningful use" of a qualified or certified electronic health record (EHR). Currently, no clear federal definition exists to explain what qualifies, and the HIT community in the United States is in heated debate over proposed definitions and the forecasted impact on reimbursement and the business of healthcare.

Related Links:
Meanigfuluse.org
Compuware Corporation
Association of Medical Directors of Information Systems