CCR Initiative Urges HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt

The AAFP reported an interesting piece on a request that the Continuity of Care Record (CCR) be used by HHS to carry forward their IT Healthcare goals. While I’m glad I don’t do this kind of political jockeying I love to read about it. Here’s part of the letter that was sent to HHS:

* The CCR standard has been endorsed by multiple physician organizations and health IT vendors and is already in the market and available for use.
* The standard is a comprehensive clinical content standard with 16 sections, including patient demographics, encounters, diagnoses, medications, allergies and immunizations.
* The CCR standard will permit interoperable exchange of personal health data between disparate electronic health record systems used in medical practices.
* The standard is an open standard and is free of licensing fees.

I really need to spend some more time on this subject. I found the Continuity of Care Record(CCR) website. Something that I don’t like already is that their “official CCR Implementation Guide” costs. Maybe this is standard, but I’m not sure I’m ready to pay to see the official guide. I guess they have to fund CCR some way or another.