Once-influential health technology alliance set to disband

Declaring its mission has been accomplished, the National Alliance for Health Information Technology is ceasing operation as of Sept. 30.

NAHIT was founded in 2002 by industry leaders from several sectors of the health care industry and had heavy membership from hospital systems and associations, and vendors. Its goal was to build a common ground for the implementation of health information technology -- which, it says, has happened.

The alliance, in recent years also has had financial problems and organizational changes, to the point its chief operating officer was its last remaining employee.

NAHIT is now calling on other organizations to help practices and hospitals implement technology in order to improve care, safety and efficiency.

In a statement released Aug. 17, the organization said the industry was much different seven years ago when there was "little to no momentum to harness technology to transform the industry." Now, "HIT has moved front and center in efforts to reinvent and reinvigorate the U.S. health system," said Jane Horowitz, NAHIT's chief operating officer.

The group specifically called on the American Hospital Assn. and the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives to continue their work of advancing health IT by providing resources to their members. Both organizations are founding members of NAHIT. Neither had any immediate comment on the alliance's disbanding.

During its tenure, NAHIT helped formed the Certification Commission for Health Information Technology, the only certifying body currently recognized by the federal government. It also helped develop a definition of interoperability that is now being used in proposed legislation focused on the meaningful use of electronic health records.

The group was also hired by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology to create key health IT definitions, which were finalized in 2008. Terms included electronic health record, electronic medical record, personal health record, health information exchange and regional health information organization. As part of the process, the group created a new term, health information organization, to describe an organization overseeing the transmission of electronic information.

NAHIT also led efforts to gain industry consensus on the use of bar codes for identifying medication, which helped shape the Food and Drug Administration's regulations.

One area in which the group was not successful was in its efforts to create a unique patient identifier system. The 1996 Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act mandated UPI systems but security concerns have stalled those efforts. The American Medical Association has actively advocated a repeal of the law requiring UPIs.