Newsletter
#16
MedBiquitous Consortium
Newsletter #16
17 December 2003
Published by the MedBiquitous Consortium
Contents:
- MedBiquitous Applies for ANSI Accreditation
- Institute of Medicine Calls for Data Standards to Enhance Safety
- Dan Rehak to Serve as MedBiquitous Learning Architect
- Plugfest 8 Special Session
- Tom Brantigan
Accepts Chair Position in Working
Group
- CDC and AHC
Join MedBiquitous
- Save the date:
May 10-11
1. MedBiquitous Applies for ANSI Accreditation
MedBiquitous is pleased to announce that
it has applied for accreditation as American
National Standards Institute (ANSI) standards
developer. ANSI promotes and facilitates
voluntary consensus standards and is the
official US representative to the International
Organization for Standardization (ISO).
MedBiquitous is seeking accreditation
for its standards activities in medical
education, professional competence assessment,
and related areas. MedBiquitous’ application
is currently open to public review. For
more information about ANSI, see: http://www.ansi.org/.
2.
Institute of Medicine Calls for Data Standards
to Enhance Safety
On November 20, the Institute of Medicine
(IOM) released “Patient Safety:
Achieving a New Standard for Care,” a
report that describes a detailed plan
to facilitate the development of data
standards applicable to the collection,
coding, and classification of patient
safety information. To address the tens
of thousands of deaths and injuries caused
by medical errors every year, the report
calls for a national network of health
information based on data standards for
clinical terminologies, data exchange,
and representation of medical information,
including medical knowledge.
MedBiquitous
is filling an important gap in the standards
impacting patient safety.
Technology standards for medical education
and training have the opportunity to
improve patient safety as part of a larger
culture
of safety and continuous self-improvement.
The MedBiquitous Education Working
Group is developing data standards for
medical
educational content that should enable
education to be a part of the national
network for health information and
bring education to the point of care.
We encourage
healthcare educators to be involved
in these efforts to improve patient safety
through innovative technologies. For
more
information on the IOM Patient Safety
report, see http://www.iom.edu/report.asp?id=16663.
3.
Dan Rehak to serve as MedBiquitous Learning
Architect
Dan Rehak of Carnegie Mellon University’s
Learning Systems Architecture Lab has
agreed to serve as Learning Architect
on the MedBiquitous Technical Steering
Committee to provide strategic technical
direction to the Consortium. Dan is an
active participant in the IEEE Learning
Technology Standards Committee, the IMS
Global Learning Consortium and the Advanced
Distributed Learning Initiative's work
on defining architectures and standards
for learning technology systems. Dan joins
other leaders in Web technology and software
development on the MedBiquitous Technical
Steering Committee.
4.
Plugfest 8 Special Session
On October 28, MedBiquitous hosted a special
working session at Advanced Distributed
Learning's Plugfest 8. The presentation
from this session, Creating a SCORM Profile
for Medicine, outlined what was necessary
to apply SCORM e-learning standards to
medical education. The MedBiquitous Education
Working Group is drafting specifications
to customize SCORM for medicine so that
metadata descriptions of medical learning
content can describe credit, accreditation,
competency, clinical guideline, and other
relevant information. See the MedBiquitous
presentation from this special session
at: http://www.adlnet.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=rcdetails&libid=639&filterid=64&page=2.
Members
interested in participating in the Education
Working Group can contact
us for more information.
5.
Tom Brantigan Accepts Chair Position in
Working Group
Tom Brantigan, Senior Vice President of Product Development for TMA Resources,
has accepted a position as Chair of the MedBiquitous Membership Management Working
Group. Tom serves as chief software and technology architect for TMA Resources,
a provider of member relationship management software to professional societies
and other organizations. He has been an active member of the Membership Management
Working Group since its inception and has contributed greatly to the design of
the Member Profile Specification, which provides a standard format for exchanging
information about healthcare professionals. We look forward to Tom’s leadership
in this important area.
6.
CDC and AHC Join MedBiquitous
MedBiquitous is pleased to welcome the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
(CDC) and the Association of Academic Health Centers (AHC) as its most recent
members. The CDC is recognized as the lead federal agency for protecting the
health and safety of people – in the United States and abroad, providing
credible information to enhance health decisions, and promoting health through
strong partnerships. The CDC is currently working to build a Public Health Information
Network that uses shared data standards to support the exchange of key health
data for a more effective and response-oriented public health system.
AHC is a national, non-profit organization dedicated to improving the health
of the people by advancing the leadership of academic health centers in health
professions education, biomedical and health services research, and health care
delivery. Their Partnerships For Training program consists of eight regional
consortiums of nurse practitioner, certified-nurse-midwifery, and physician assistant
programs that are using distance technology and satellite campuses to increase
the number of primary care providers in underserved areas of the United States.
We look
forward to working with both CDC and AHC
to developing IT standards that support
their important missions.
7. Save the date: May 10-11
The MedBiquitous Annual Conference will be held in Baltimore, Maryland on May
10 and 11, 2004. More information regarding the conference agenda and speakers
will be forthcoming in a future newsletter. Mark your calendars!
