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News Release

Call for Nominations for Collaboration on Health IT
Notice of American Health Information Community Published in Federal Register

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is formally calling for nominations for the American Health Information Community (the Community), a public-private collaboration that will help develop standards and achieve interoperability of health information. Secretary Mike Leavitt announced his intent to form the Community on June 6, 2005. The collaboration will provide a forum for public and private interests to recommend specific actions that will accelerate the widespread application and adoption of electronic health records and other health information technology. Today, the draft charter for the Community, which specifies the purpose and criteria for membership, was posted on the HHS Web site, and the notice of the formation of the Community was published in the Federal Register.

“Our health care system is saturated with inefficiency,” HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt said. “Until we adopt modern information technology practices -- like electronic health records, e-prescribing, and systematic adverse drug event reporting -- we will not have cost-effective medical care in this country, and we will have far too many medical errors. The American Health Information Community will accelerate the development of the standards necessary for the modernization we need.”

The Community will be governed by the Federal Advisory Committee Act and will have up to 17 voting members, including the chairperson. The Secretary of HHS will appoint the members of the Community and serve as chairperson. Members will include officials from HHS and its component agencies, as well as representatives from other appropriate federal agencies, state government and the private sector. Criteria for membership in the Community break down the following way:

Public Sector
Eight members from the federal government and one member from state government will be appointed, including representatives from the following entities:

• Department of Health and Human Services, including the Office of the Secretary, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, and the Public Health Service
• Department of Veterans Affairs
• Department of Defense
• Department of Commerce
• Department of the Treasury
• Office of Personnel Management
• State leader (e.g., a governor, state CIO, or other state official)

Private Sector
Eight members from the private sector will be appointed. Each representative should be a key decision-maker in his or her industry and should have broad support from peers and related professional organizations. Candidates who have responded to the recent Requests for Proposal on health information technology will need to declare this fact and refrain from certain discussions if selected. Private sector members will be selected from the following stakeholder groups:

• Consumer and Privacy Interests
• Purchasers
• Third-Party Payers
• Hospitals
• Physicians
• Nurses
• Ancillary Services (e.g., laboratories and pharmacists)
• Information Technology Vendors

Members shall serve two-year terms, and those who are not considered full-time federal employees will be paid a daily rate plus per diem. Private sector members who serve as special government employees will be subject to financial disclosure and conflict of interest requirements. Some private sector members may serve as industry representatives and will not be special government employees.

Nominations
To be considered for membership in the Community, please send a one-page letter summarizing your qualifications by Aug. 5, 2005. If you have already sent in a nomination and have received a written response that indicates receipt of your information, then your nomination has already been filed. If you would like to amend a previous submission after reading the charter, please send your amended nomination with the word RESUBMISSION in bold letters on the cover of your letter. Please send all nominations to only ONE of the following destinations:

E-MAIL: onchit.request@hhs.gov
FAX: (202) 690-6079
MAIL: ONCHIT c/o Mari Johnson
Department of Health and Human Services
200 Independence Ave, Suite 517D
Washington, D.C. 20201

For questions on the American Health Information Community nomination process, please call this toll free number: 1-866-505-3500.

The Web address for the Community’s draft charter is: www.hhs.gov/healthit/ahiccharter.pdf