Panel meets to map meaningful use standards

The Department of Health and Human Services Health Information Technology (HIT) Standards Committee took aim at a moving target Wednesday as it began to discuss how to apply specifications and certification criteria to the definition of "meaningful use" of health information technology. "Meaningful use" is the formula used in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 to describe criteria for qualifying hospitals and practices for Medicare incentive payments for adopting health IT systems. Last week, the HIT Policy committee unveiled a first draft of a definition for meaningful use. In the end, it tabled its initial recommendations in favor of a more ambitious plan that would move forward elements of the health IT adoption plan from 2013 to 2011. "The definition of meaningful use will be evolving in the next 60 days," noted John Halamka, the chief information officer of Harvard Medical School and co-chairman of the standards committee, at Wednesday's meeting in Washington. "This will require the standards committee to coordinate their work with "a set of evolving criteria."