Al, the primary purpose behind CCHIT is
INTEROPERABILITY. You do not seem to want to ever address that. I will.
Secondly, Programs like LOGMEIN and GOTOMYPC operate on a very basic but expensive premise: that everyone who uses them has at least 2 PCs. Every IT professional WORTH HIS SALT, understands that having a use communicate with the data is the preferred manner of accessing data in a distributed computing environment. I use a program called TeamViewer for remote access FOR SUPPORT, not to do work when I am away from my network. For that I use VPN, and connect directly to my server using 256-bit encryption.
Interoperability is the capability of systems to SHARE AND CONSUME DATA. The operative word here is CONSUME. What do we mean when we talk about consuming data? Right now when you receive lab reports from LabCorp or SonoraQuest, you get a printed document. If AC has an INTERFACE for LabCorp, then AC can bring in the the DATA directly for the patient and integrate is automatically as a part of the patient record. Now why should a small company like AC have to write an INTERFACE FOR LABCORP and an INTERFACE for SonoraQuest? Why not have all labs conform to a single CCHIT standard so that AC, and other small companies only have to write a single LAB INTERFACE.
This same paradigm will work for transferring patient records from one doctor to the next. A PDF is not, repeat, IS NOT data. It is simply an electronic copy of a paper document.
Let me give you another example. Bert has a vaccine program called VIPER. Because CCHIT will DEFINE how ALL EMR's CONSUME this data, if Bert writes VIPER to the standard, all of a sudden his little 2 man company can sell its product to any Pediatrician irrespective of which EMR they use.
So the customers can determine which features they want, however,
interoperability requires vendor-independent standards.
Large off-the-shelf software vendors were putting forth interfaces s.a. the one that comes with MS Access (ODBC).
It has already been established that MS-Access is not scalable, as such it does not make a good multi-user datastore.
The government also toyed around with a free, still working EMR for the VA Medical Centers that has saved the government big bucks and they claim increased the quality over their paper record system.
Why can't we have that?
That would stiffle competition, restrict innovation, and be anti-capitalist. One can only imagine the hew and cry from every sector if the government MANDATED that the ONLY EMR physicians could use was a government built system.
What we don't need is a set of mandated "standards" which are really rules to control the way that a physician practices medicine,
Nothing I have read about CCHIT "controls" how a physician practices medicine. CCHIT's goal is to ensure the interoperability of multiple systems from multiple vendors by providing the standards.
Again the reason why you are able to buy ANY TELEPHONE and place a successful phone call to any other phone(land, cell, VOIP) is because there are interoperability standards set by the FCC, to ensure that all phones work in much the same way. Those FCC standards do not TELL YOU WHAT TO SAY during your phone call, neither do they tell you where to place your call from, they simply allow you to call.
In any event please answer the following question:
How do you suggest ensuring INTEROPERABILITY without a standards body to set the standards?
