Project Proposal
NOTE: The draft document is posted as an attachment and contains a figure that did not transfer.
AIIM Standards Program
Project Proposal
Submit completed project proposal to Betsy Fanning at bfanning@aiim.org or via fax to 240-494-2682.
1. Project Title
PDF/H (Healthcare)
2. Project Introduction
The migration of medical records from paper to digital format would benefit from the availability of an easy-to-adopt document encapsulation standard that meets a minimum level of healthcare industry requirements for portability, security and the exchange of information. It is our belief that PDF meets these requirements today.
PDF is a digital format for representing information that is independent of the application software, hardware, and operating system used to create it and of the output device on which it is to be displayed or printed. The independent nature of PDF facilitates the process of creating, managing, securing, collecting and exchanging digital content on diverse platforms and devices.
Adobe Systems Incorporated publishes the PDF Specification which has enabled PDF to become a defacto standard for information exchange among major corporations, government agencies, and educational institutions and today is being used to replace paper-based workflows for the electronic exchange of information and will continue to do so at a rapid pace.
Because of its adoption and acceptance PDF is an ideal format for capturing healthcare information that can contain any combination of text, graphics and images.
3. Scope Statement or abstract
This standard would specify how to use the Portable Document Format within the healthcare industry to facilitate how healthcare and medical information is captured, exchanged, preserved and protected among consumers, and the rest of the healthcare system.
4. Objective
The objective is to develop a secure electronic package/container that can store healthcare information that ranges from personal documents, communications, electronic forms, scanned images, photographs, X-Ray films and other information that may be important to maintain and improve health.
5. Need Statement
The process in place today for collecting, maintaining and accessing medical information is broken as it is primarily paper driven which is very inefficient and often leads to mistakes and administration of sub-optimal care.
In most cases patients do not have access to their own health information and even if they get access they are inundated with collections of paper based records. Information is hard to find, scattered among various locations and in many cases just not there.
If patients controlled their health information it would enhance communications between patients and their providers as well as those participating in the healthcare system such as insurance providers, pharmacies, pharmacy benefits management companies and others.
Now more than ever it's clear that moving medical information to an electronic environment is necessary. We've seen recent tragedies such as Katrina where victims have lost their entire medical history; they don't know what medications they've been prescribed or vaccinations they've received.
Consumers are showing more interest in managing their own health information but in order to so they will need standards and tools available that make it easy for them to collect, control and use their health data. The scope for this data is shown in Figure 1.
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PBMs |
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PIM |
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RXM |
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PXM |
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ACM |
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Imaging Centers |
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Laboratories |
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Remote |
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Patient |
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PCM |
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Hospitals w/o EMRs |
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Physiciansw/o EMRs |
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Physiciansw/ EMRs |
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Hospitals w/ EMRs |
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EDI Clearinghouse |
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EMR Inter-faces |
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EDI Clearinghouse |
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MDM |
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RDM |
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Health Plan Informatics |
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CIM |
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PHRHR |
Figure 1 - Sources of data feeding a PDF/H File
6. Potential Commercial impact or Market Relevance
- a. Will commercial products need to be modified or developed in order for the standard or TR to provide proposed benefits?
Unknown at this time
- b. Are current product providers identified and available to participate in developing the standard or TR?
Yes - Adobe, Intel and targeting others
- c. Are there any de facto standards available for the same purpose? If so, please identify.
While there are a number of standards in the health field focusing on disease codes, drug codes, medical images, etc. we are not aware of any standard for the purpose of compiling multiple file formats, data types, images, etc. into one secure package for healthcare information.
7. Coordination
Is there similar work elsewhere?
We will coordinate with other standards organization such as HL7, ASTM among others TBD.
8. Resources (Potential participants)
Merck, American Academy of Family Physicians, Oregon Health Sciences University, Omnimedix, Greenfield Health, Beth Israel, Sloan Kettering Memorial Cancer Center, Generator and others
9. Project Proposed Timeline
AIIM Best Practice Guide - approximately 12 months
Simultaneously develop formal standard 24-36 months
Proposer's Contact Information
Adobe Systems Incorporated
Melonie Warfel
Director, WW Standards
8201 Greensboro Drive #1000
McLean, VA 22102
Ph. 703 883-2816
Intel
Rick Benoit
Program Manager, Standards
Digital Health Group
cell 503-7045391
office 503-4563347
Attached Files
| PDF H CD v1.rtf | bfanning | Mar 12, 2006 | 94 KB |
| PDF/H Project Proposal | |||
