AAFP's Center for Health IT to focus on improving EHR use

The American Academy of Family Physicians will be shifting the focus of its Center for Health Information Technology from promoting IT adoption to refining the use of electronic health records. Roughly 80% of its almost 116,000 members now are using an EHR.

Originally established in 2003 to move family doctors from paper files to computerized information systems, the center will move toward “supporting optimization” of EHR use. This will include exploring ways to achieve better workflow efficiency and filling “gaps in needed functionality,” according to an AAFP news release.

The center used four founding principles to guide IT adoption: affordability, compatibility, interoperability and data stewardship.

The restructuring will include four areas of focus: discovering best practices among AAFP members who have found using IT to increase job satisfaction and improve quality of care; deployment of those best practices among AAFP members and the primary-care community; development of new innovations to address gaps in IT product functionality; and providing data analytics to improve quality and cost effectiveness of care.

The new focus will come with a new name, the Alliance for eHealth Innovation, which Dr. Steven Waldren said in the release reflects the mission of the center to move toward “the automation of care delivery.”

Waldren took over as the center's director in 2006, stepped down briefly in 2013 and returned last April.

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