Schoen named EHRVA chairman

The EHR Vendors Association has elected Don Schoen, CEO of MediNotes, as its new chairman, and GE executive Hugh Zettel as vice chairman. They succeed co-chairs Charlene Underwood, director of government and industry affairs for Siemens, and Andrew Ury, MD, CEO of Practice Partner.

Schoen's election, he says, represents EHRVA members' desire to have an ambulatory EHR vendor as their chief spokesperson.

According to Schoen, EHRVA will have three priorities in the coming year:

• continue working with the Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology as it adds more certification requirements;

• help educate doctors, the public, and government officials about EHRs;

• make progress on establishing standards for interoperability.

EHRVA has had a "roadmap" for interoperability for several years, notes Schoen. It's focusing more on this area now to ensure that standards "not be driven forward by legislation, but by the initiative of vendors." EHRVA will be making announcements on this subject within the near future, he adds.

Despite the at-times rocky relationships between standards groups representing hospital and ambulatory vendors, Schoen says the vendors will work together on interoperability. Combining the outpatient Continuity of Care Record (CCR) and the inpatient Care Record Summary (CRS) in a single format that works with HL7 was an important step in the right direction, he states.