It is my pleasure to welcome our guest blogger Todd Cooper, president of Breakthrough Solutions Foundry Inc, San Diego. Device connectivity affects everyone working with medical devices, and your comments and participation are important, as you’ll see from Todd’s post below. We hope you'll respond to this blog and also click on the link he provides to submit your ideas. Thanks in advance!
From Todd Cooper: In the midst of the health care reform debate, passage of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009/Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (ARRA/HITECH) legislation earlier this year, and even discussions about the “health Internet,” the question has been asked: Where does device connectivity fit into all this? To answer that question, the Healthcare Information Technology Standards Panel (HITSP) was chartered to look at the broad landscape of device connectivity and the ever increasing role it plays within the health care enterprise, and to create a plan of attack over the next few years that would culminate in “medical device interoperability” by 2015. A HITSP working group of subject matter experts has been developing a technical note over the last 2 to 3 months that provides just such a multi-phased roadmap for establishing open standards-based device connectivity solutions that would be ready for deployment by 2013/2015, as well as the technology gaps that need to be filled in order to get there.
Recently HITSP published HITSP/TN905 Device Connectivity Technical Note for public comment and is asking for review and feedback over the next few weeks. The document is available on the HITSP Web site and the public comment period closes December 18, 2009. The comments will then be reviewed and a final draft created and submitted for approval at the HITSP meeting scheduled for January 25, 2010. This is your opportunity to provide input into the roadmap, ensuring that your concerns and needs are heard and taken into consideration!
Also, if you are interested in working on the final draft to be submitted for final approval by the HITSP at its January 25, 2010 meeting, please contact either Todd Cooper ([email protected]) or John Donnelly ([email protected]).
