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Chicago, April 7 — To better understand the definition of 'meaningful use' of healthcare information technology (IT) in the American Reinvestment and Reimbursement Act (ARRA), the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) has two wikis serving as resources for collaboration, both e-Prescribing and clinical decision support (CDS).

HIMSS has introduced two different definitions of 'meaningful use,' one for physicians and one for hospitals, which appear on the HIMSS Web site and are open for comment. While the final definition of 'meaningful use' continues to evolve, this terminology does include three components:

• CDS
  
  
• e-Prescribing
  
  
• Quality outcomes and reporting

"Our e-Prescribing wiki offers a quick forum for collaboration in a dynamic, real time setting with over 100 users and growing daily" said David Collins, HIMSS director, healthcare information systems. "Additionally, the HIMSS CDS Task Force plans to open its private CDS wiki to the public by June."

The HIMSS e-Prescribing Task Force built the wiki to educate, collaborate, share, and network. It is intended to be a one-stop shop discussions and resources, sharing of case studies and "How To" tip sheets. Go to http://himsseprescribingwiki.pbwiki.com to access the wiki.

The HIMSS CDS Task Force, six health systems consisting of 50 hospitals, has used its private wiki to collaborate on its task force project focused on applying CDS to venous thromboembolism (VTE). This highly dangerous "never event" is no longer being reimbursed by Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), if acquired in the hospital or shortly after discharge. A "never event" is one that occurs when in the hospital, such as an infection, and are described by the CMS as "reasonably preventable." CDS is a powerful tool for improving outcomes, but implementations are complex and often problematic. Leveraging the wiki for collaboration is accelerating local CDS-enhanced performance improvements. For instance, the CDS wiki has allowed these pilot sites to share workflow processes and develop model practices. The insight gained is scalable to other disease conditions, helping to bridge the challenge of applying CDS in the hospital setting.

To become actively involved in the CDS wiki, contact David Collins, HIMSS director of health information systems, at dcollins@himss.org.

About HIMSS
The Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) is the healthcare industry's membership organization exclusively focused on providing global leadership for the optimal use of healthcare information technology (IT) and management systems for the betterment of healthcare. Founded in 1961 with offices in Chicago, Washington D.C., Brussels, Singapore, and other locations across the United States and the globe, HIMSS represents more than 20,000 individual members and over 350 corporate members that collectively represent organizations employing millions of people. HIMSS frames and leads healthcare public policy and industry practices through its advocacy, educational and professional development initiatives designed to promote information and management systems' contributions to ensuring quality patient care. Visit www.himss.org for more information.