The federal government picked representatives from Tennessee as one of only nine states to sit on a panel that will collect the best ideas from around the nation about electronic medical records.
Tennessee has several Regional Health Information Organizations, also known as RHIOs. They work to coordinate the hospitals, doctors and insurance companies that use different medical records systems.
Antione Agassi is head of Tennessee’s e-Health Advisory Council. Governor Phil Bredesen created the council which oversees the four RHIOs in Tennessee. Agassi says Tennessee’s active electronic records leadership is why it was selected for the panel.
“They will take what they learn in other states and they will publish kind of best practices that other states can learn from in terms of here’s what we thought was successful.”
Agassi says the panel’s recommendations should be out by late summer. Bredesen has been a vocal advocate of setting federal standards for electronic medical records.