Let's make suggestions for inclusion of social justice factors in Electronic Health Records by participating in the NIH activity described below.
Dear colleague,
Your input is requested to help make recommendations for a standardized set of patient-reported variables to be collected in primary care and public health electronic health records (EHRs), which will lead to unprecedented data harmonization and opportunities for health research. In order to participate in this process:
- Please visit the website for the collaborative tool: www.gem-beta.org
- Click on the blue button at the top titled "EHR Campaign." Or alternatively, click on the News tab and then the associated EHR campaign title.
- Read the summary statements written by the expert panels
- Enter your comments on the recommended measures, and if needed, suggest alternative measures (see attachment for detailed instructions).
- Forward this request to your colleagues who may be interested in this initiative
Comments will be accepted through April 4, 2011.
Background about this Collaborative Effort
Several institutes within the National Institutes of Health in collaboration with the Society of Behavioral Medicine are coordinating an effort to identify a core set of brief, practical measures to recommend for use in adult primary care and public health electronic health records (EHRs), and we are inviting you and all members of your affiliated organizations to join this collaborative effort.
The HITECH Act and the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act place new emphasis on the widespread and meaningful use of electronic health records (EHRs). This is an important advance, with one significant exception: Currently EHRs fail to capture data reflecting crucial health behaviors and psychosocial issues. Such patient-reported variables are both health outcomes themselves, and major determinants of other health outcomes.
To address the critical need for patient-reported data, we are organizing an effort to evaluate and recommend actionable, patient-reported measures of health behaviors and psychosocial factors for use in electronic health records (EHRs) within adult primary care and public health settings. In order to facilitate broad participation in the development of standard measures we are using a three-phase process of consensus building.
In the first phase panels of subject matter experts were convened for each of 13 behavioral domains to review available measures and to recommend up to 4 reliable, practical measures for each domain that would be appropriate to utilize in primary care and public health settings and to be reported in EHRs.
*Your input is being requested for the second and third phases of the project.*
For the second phase we are using the NCIs Grid-Enabled Measures (GEM) Database to gather feedback from all stakeholders. In order to participate in this process, please visit the GEM website, www.gem-beta.org, and click on the blue button at the top titled "EHR Campaign." Or alternatively, click on the News tab and the associated header for the EHR campaign. Begin by reading the summary statements written by the expert panels, view the recommended measures, enter your comments on the recommended measures, and if needed, suggest alternative measures. Comments will be accepted through April 4, 2011.
The third phase will be a workshop/town hall meeting on May 2, 2011 at the NIH bringing together scientists, practitioners, policy makers, and patient/consumer representatives to review the results of this campaign and make recommendations on standard consensus measures for behavioral health and health behavior screening in primary care and public health settings. We encourage everyone interested in this effort to participate, and more information about this meeting will be forthcoming. Immediately following this workshop there will be a closed session meeting of key stakeholders to make final recommendations based on feedback obtained from the GEM tool and the open meeting.
Workshop participants will receive a summary of the meeting as well as information on final recommendations. Subsequent to the meeting, organizers and key stakeholders will discuss strategies to build support and implement plans to advance the adoption and incorporation of a core set of patient-reported behavioral and psychosocial measures in primary care and public health EHRs.
We truly thank you for your participation in this project to standardize the collection of behavioral data in EHRs because it will enable the collaborative group to put forth the best possible recommendations and ultimately improve patient outcomes.
Sincerely,
The EHR Measures Meeting Planning Committee
Maureen P Boyle, Ph.D.
AAAS Science and Technology Policy Fellow
Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research
Office of the Director, NIH
31 Center Drive, Building 31, Room B1-C19; MSC 2027
Bethesda, MD 20892-2027
