June 11, 2008 – The Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology (CCHIT) this week is kicking off development of its certification programs for 2009, has named co-chairs and members to its 10 electronic health record (EHR) Work Groups, as well as a special personal health record (PHR) Advisory Task Force.
“Because PHRs require a new perspective that is patient-centric and consumer focused, we wanted to expand the spectrum of stakeholders beyond those currently represented on the commission,” said Mark Leavitt, M.D., Ph.D., chair. “The PHR Advisory Task Force will contribute strategic and policy guidance in this new area for us.”
Members of the PHR task force are: Co-chairs Mark Leavitt, CCHIT, and Paul Tang, M.D., Palo Alto Medical Foundation; Abha Agrawal, M.D., Kings County Hospital Center, Brooklyn, NY; Richard Benoit, Intel Digital Health Group; Lorraine Doo, Office of e-Health Standards and Services, CMS; Steve Findlay, Consumers Union; Meighan Girgus, American Heart Association; Theresa Hancock, Veterans and Consumers Health; Informatics Office, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs; Leslie Harris, Center for Democracy and Technology; Missy Krasner, Google Health; Steve Lampkin, Wal-Mart; Holly Miller, M.D., University Hospitals, Cleveland, OH; Don Mon, American Health Information Management Association; Anna Lisa Silvestre, Kaiser Foundation Health Plan; Michael Stokes, Microsoft Corporation; Michael Ubl, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Minnesota; and a patient representative who is to be named.
The Commission also named 171 volunteers to its 10 work groups to develop the CCHIT Certified 09 criteria. Besides groups that will update criteria for ambulatory, inpatient, and emergency department EHRs, and update the optional child health and cardiovascular certifications, new work groups were created for PHRs and behavioral health. Other groups will focus on progress in interoperability, security and privacy. All volunteers have been invited to meet at a face-to-face kickoff meeting July 16–17 in Chicago. The roster of newly selected work group members is published on the Web site www.cchit.org. Applications for the next year’s work in the health information exchange group and a new long-term care group will open at a later date.
The Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology is an independent, nonprofit organization that has been recognized by the federal government as an official certification body for electronic health record products. Its mission is to accelerate the adoption of health information technology by creating a credible, sustainable product certification program. The certification requirements are based on widely accepted industry standards and involve the work of hundreds of expert volunteers and input from a variety of stakeholders throughout the healthcare industry.
For more information: www.cchit.org
March 14, 2024 
