eHI Report on E-Prescribing Wins Innovation Award

December 3, 2004

The eHealth Initiative (eHI), an independent, Washington, DC-based nonprofit group promoting the use of information technology to improve health care,  has been honored with a Health Care Research and Innovations Congress Award (HCRIC)  http://www.hcric.com/default.asp?View=33 for its groundbreaking report on electronic prescribing.  The eHI report -- Electronic Prescribing: Towards Maximum Value and Rapid Adoption: Recommendations for Optimal Design and Implementation to Improve Care, Increase Efficiency and Reduce Costs in Ambulatory Care (eRx Report) -- won in the award category “Best Health Organization Innovation to Integrate Basic Science and Clinical Research.”  The announcement came Tuesday evening, November 30th, at a joint awards ceremony by the HCRIC with the Emerging Technologies and Healthcare Innovations Congress in Washington, DC.

Published in April 2004, the report’s recommendations reflect the consensus of over 70  stakeholders and national experts who met and exchanged ideas through eHI’s Electronic Prescribing Initiative.  The 113 page report provides health professionals with a detailed “how to” in transitioning from paper-based to electronic prescribing.  It was recently adopted by the National Committee on Vital Health Statistics (NCVHS) as the basis for formulating recommendations on e-prescribing to the Department of  Health and Human Services. For a downloadable version of this document click here: http://www.ehealthinitiative.org/initiatives/erx/