A conference call was held at 1:00 p.m. to: 1) Discuss NCVHS Transition of Membership and Committee Structure, 2) Confirm Plans for May 21-22 Full Committee Meeting, 3) Review and Approve Final NCVHS Operations and Processes Document, and 4) Discuss Plans for 60th Year Anniversary Celebration.
| Present | Absent |
Members: |
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| Jeff Blair, M.B.A. Simon Cohn, M.D., M.P.H. Justine Carr, M.D. Harry Reynolds Mark Rothstein, J.D. |
Donald Steinwachs, Ph.D. |
Staff and Liaisons: |
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| Denise Buenning, MSM Mary Jo Deering, Ph.D. Maya Bernstein, J.D. J. Michael Fitzmaurice, Ph.D, AHRQ, Liaison Marjorie S. Greenberg, Executive Secretary Debbie Jackson Katherine Jones James Scanlon, Executive Staff Director Marietta Squire Steven J. Steindel, Ph.D., CDC Liaison Karen Trudel, CMS Liaison |
Mary Beth Farquhar, RN, MSN Jorge Ferrer, M.D., VA Liaison James Lepkowski, Ph.D., BSC Liaison Edward J. Sondik, Ph.D., NCHS Liaison |
The conference was called to order by Simon Cohn at 1:05 p.m.
1) NCVHS Membership Transition and Committee Structure:
Jim reported that we are moving well with the appointments. The Secretary approved all the nominations and Jim’s office sent out appointment letters for three re-appointments and four new members. We received acceptances from all nominees as of the time of this call. Harry Reynolds has been appointed as Chair. Justine Carr and Judith Warren have also been reappointed. Simon Cohn, Mark Rothstein, Eugene Steuerle, and Kevin Vigilante all have appointments ending June 1st. New members include:
Mark Hornbrook, Ph.D.
Senior Investigator and Senior Economist, Center for Health Research
Kaiser Permanente, Northwest Region of Portland, OR
Sallie Hunt, JD
Executive Director, West Virginia Health Information Network
Chief Privacy Officer, West Virginia State Government of Charleston, WV
Blackford Middleton, M.D., MPH, M.Sc.
Corporate Director of Clinical Informatics Research and Development
Chairman, Center for Information Technology, Partners Healthcare System in
Wellesley, MA
Walter Suarez, M.D., MSPH
President and CEO
Institute for HIPAA HIT Education and Research in Oakhill, VA
Except for the Senate appointment, we now have a full complement of members. We have been in constant contact with the Senate indicating that we need an appointment to the Committee from the Senate leadership. We will proceed with the official appointment documents and conflict of interest forms. We will also invite the new members to the May meeting as consultants. The new members can also listen in on the meeting if they can not attend. The date that the new members’ appointments become effective is June 1st. Simon would like to have them participate in the May meeting if possible so that we can also conduct an orientation session.
Harry announced the proposed new structure for the NCVHS. Each subcommittee will have a chair and a co-chair. The co-chairs will also be members of the Executive Subcommittee. The selections of the chairs and co-chairs will be announced at the May meeting. The subcommittee names will be changed as follows:
Subcommittee on Standards – Jeff Blair and Judith Warren
Subcommittee on Privacy and Security – Leslie Francis and John Houston
Subcommittee on Populations – Don Steinwachs and Bill Scanlon
Subcommittee on Quality and Data – Justine Carr and Paul Tang
To handle topics and issues as they come up, an Ad Hoc Workgroup will be formed as needed and chaired by Harry. Debbie Jackson will serve as administrative lead and will team with other Departmental staff with expertise in the particular area. This was considered to be a flexible way to address the topics as they arise, and was based on the successful NHIN and "Secondary Use" Ad Hoc Workgroups. The NHII Workgroup will be "retired" since those issues are expected to be incorporated in the new "free-standing" Ad Hoc Workgroup.
A motion was moved and passed to accept the proposed new structure. The new structure was approved with no objections.
2) May 21-22 Full Committee Meeting:
We are scheduled to have updates from the Department. Jim Scanlon will present and Karen Trudel will need to confirm her availability to make a presentation. We will also have Rob Kolodner provide an update regarding AHIC activities, including the transition to the public/private entity, and NHIN contracts. CDC also will be asked to report on their NHIN-related contracts.
The agenda will be revised to reflect only one Action Item – letter on E-prescribing for long term care from the Standards Subcommittee. There have been no new developments regarding the surge capacity letter, so it is therefore being removed from the agenda. However, it can still come before the Committee as an action item at a later date.
Justine Carr discussed plans for the 2004 Quality Report with the 23 candidate recommendations. The recommendations have been updated with what has been happening in various topic areas. Susan Kanaan grouped all the recommendations providing them with a numerical score. Justine and Marjorie have commented on a draft, and a second draft will be sent to the Executive Subcommittee, Paul Tang and Bill Scanlon for their review and input. The next version will be put in the agenda book for review as a draft for everyone’s input on the first day of the NCVHS meeting. Although it has not been decided whether the document would be transmitted to the Secretary or only posted on the NCVHS website, it could certainly be sent to Carolyn Clancy as the Chair of the AHIC Quality Workgroup.
On the first day, we will move the Populations Subcommittee and the Standards Subcommittee break-out sessions to 4:00 p.m. The Quality and Data Subcommittee and the Privacy and Security Subcommittee still have their breakout sessions scheduled for 8:30 a.m. on Thursday morning.
3) NCVHS Operations and Processes Document:
The document is in very good shape, but there was difficulty capturing the point about values made during the February NCVHS Full Committee meeting. However, the Subcommittee agreed that the document captured the essence of the Committee’s operations and felt very comfortable moving forward. A motion was made to approve the document as presented. The document was approved with consensus.
4) NCVHS 60th Anniversary:
Marjorie Greenberg, Debbie Jackson, and Bob Phillips of the Robert Graham Center took a trip to Charlottsville, VA to visit with Kerr White (former chair of the Committee) on May 5th. They talked with Dr. White about the NCVHS 60th Anniversary and his many years on the Committee and in the field of population health data. He’s now in his 90’s and not sure if he will be able to attend the celebration but has very fond memories of his association with the Committee. We can plan the anniversary celebration for either September 2009 or June 2010 (ten years after the 50th celebration).
We have engaged in a conversation with Dan Friedman about the possibility for updating the Shaping a Health Statistics Vision for the 21st Century Report. So many things can potentially fit in with the update of the vision, but we need to decide what we want to cover. Marjorie had a few conversations with Dan Friedman and he with Gib Parrish about submitting a proposal for the direction and next steps for the report. Their proposed work would cost about $100k. The main focus of their proposal is to highlight the relationship of the vision to the whole HIT world, which has expanded significantly since the report was finalized. Simon indicated that we need to review which subcommittee could take leadership of this project and work with consultants on putting together a report. The effort will include at least one hearing with consultants plus interviews. Don Steinwachs sent comments to Marjorie indicating that revisiting the report is certainly worthwhile and a powerful strategy at a time of resource constraints. Others have expressed concern about having a “client” for the report and making it action-oriented. We have informally engaged the services of Susan Kanaan to update the 50th history of the Committee. Jim suggested that we should separate the 60th Anniversary from the vision report as the two activities do not have to be linked. He further indicated that we will ask the National Academy of Sciences to also contribute towards the success of the anniversary celebration by hosting the event. We will explore the possibility of bringing all the former NCVHS Chairs to the anniversary.
There will be some time on the full committee agenda to discuss this further. Marjorie will send the proposal from Dan Friedman to the Executive Subcommittee for review and comment.
The conference call was adjourned at 2:35 p.m.