WEDI to update landmark info exchange report

The Workgroup for Electronic Data Interchange, in reprising a work it did 20 years ago, will research and produce by year's end a comprehensive report on the state of the art of health information exchange in the U.S.

“The 1993 WEDI report provided a vision for the industry to successfully transition to electronic data interchange standards as a way to bring cost efficiencies to burdensome administrative processes, the Reston, Va.-based organization said in a news release announcing the project. “The 2013 WEDI report will identify the impacts of administrative and clinical technologies on the healthcare industry since 1993 and the likely role of emergent technologies in the years ahead.”

WEDI, founded in 1991 by then HHS Secretary Dr. Louis Sullivan, was officially designated as a health IT adviser to HHS by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996. Recommendations in the initial WEDI report led to inclusion of the “administrative simplification” provisions of HIPAA, an early federal effort to bring standardization to electronic healthcare transactions.