New Nationwide Collaboration To Leverage EHRs To Improve Care

Three major health organizations have teamed up to launch a program designed to improve outpatient care by increasing physicians' access to data through electronic health records, Healthcare IT News reports.

The three groups collaborating on the Guideline Advantage program are:

• The American Cancer Society;
• The American Diabetes Association; and
• The American Heart Association/American Stroke Association.

Program Details

The program aims to evaluate and improve outpatient treatment for cancer, diabetes, heart disease and stroke. The four conditions are among the top 10 causes of death in the U.S., according to CDC.

The program will use data from EHRs to develop a database of clinical information that could support future research on the four conditions.

Carol Wysham -- chair of the American Diabetes Association Professional Practice Committee and associate clinical professor of medicine at the University of Washington -- said the initiative also will use EHR data to measure clinician performance based on guidelines from the three health organizations.

Richard Wender -- program liaison and past president of the American Cancer Society -- said the program will be effective because it will help health care providers gauge their performance based on benchmark data (Monegain, Healthcare IT News, 3/31).

Read more: http://www.ihealthbeat.org/articles/2011/3/31/new-nationwide-collaboration-to-leverage-ehrs-to-improve-care.aspx#ixzz1IgTFs76K