New Best Practices Guide Addresses Exchange of Healthcare Information
SILVER SPRING, MD and WEST CONSHOHOCKEN, PA -- (MARKET WIRE) -- November 06, 2006 -- AIIM, the international authority on Enterprise Content Management, and ASTM International, one of the largest voluntary standards development organizations in the world, announce they are joining with other industry leaders to develop a Best Practices Guide for the use of the Portable Document Format (PDF) in the healthcare industry.

The proposed new PDF/H (PDF-Healthcare) is a portable, secure, and universal healthcare data exchange container for Personal Health Records and Electronic Health Records. PDF/H is an ideal format for exchanging and protecting healthcare information because it can contain any combination of text, graphics, and images and it builds on the well-known and trusted PDF specification utilized to great advantage by business, government, and industry.

The PDF Healthcare (PDF/H) Working Group brings together innovators from Adobe Systems Incorporated (ADBE), Intel Corporation, SureScripts, Massachusetts Medical Society, NextGen Healthcare, CapMed, American Academy of Family Physicians, American Academy of Pediatrics, Northrop Grumman Corporation (NOC), Merck & Co., Inc. (MRK), Northern Illinois Physicians for Connectivity, Generator LLC, Dak Systems Consulting, ASTM Committee E31 on Healthcare Informatics, eClinicalWorks, Good Health Network, and others who are committed to creating a Best Practices Guide to facilitate how healthcare information is captured, secured, distributed, and preserved among consumers and the healthcare system.

"The coming together of key industry leaders, technology experts, document management authorities, and healthcare professionals marks a spirit of cooperation and a new level of collaboration within the industry to define a document format that specifically meets the unique technology and communication needs of today's health providers and their patients," said John Mancini, president of AIIM. "It is now more critical than ever before that medical information be moved to an electronic environment given the effects of the Katrina disaster that we faced a short time ago. This proposed Best Practices Guide will enable patients to have greater control over their health information and improve patient - provider communications."

"Adobe is pleased to join the numerous well-respected organizations involved in efforts to develop the Best Practices Guide, as well as recommendations for PDF/H itself," said Melonie C. Warfel, director of Worldwide Standards, Adobe. "Collaborative efforts in recent years by AIIM and prominent worldwide participants on PDF/A and PDF/E have proven the need for and usefulness of industry specific electronic document standards. We believe the healthcare industry stands to reap significant benefits, as well, from PDF/H and the proposed Guide."

"PDF/H will accelerate every person's ability to access their personal and private healthcare information no matter where they are," said Colin Evans, director of Policy and Standards, Digital Health Group, Intel. "As a result, better health care is on the horizon and Intel is pleased to co-chair the PDF/H working group to make this a reality."

The joint committee formed with AIIM and ASTM will identify issues to be addressed as well as proposed solutions that will contribute to the Best Practices for publication to be released in 2007. The Best Practices will describe over time how PDF can be used to develop a secure electronic container that will allow inclusion of all relevant personal and family medical information, including chronic health histories, recent treatment notes, prescriptions, immunization records, allergy data, images (X-Rays, CT-Scans, MRIs, Sonograms), graphics (lab values), potentially life-saving baseline ECG, EEG, and blood chemistry data and other information for maintaining and improving one's health. A portable PDF/H carrier (USB memory stick, cell phone, PDA) may also be used to dynamically track other relevant information, such as insurance deductibles and Health Savings Account balances.

"One of the keys to improving health care quality and decreasing health care costs," according to Rick Peters, MD, Chair of ASTM E31 on Healthcare Informatics, "is to get accurate clinical and administrative health care data to the point of care. PDF-H represents a unique, portable, secure, and universally supported format to realize that goal and move data, valuable data, safely across our fragmented health care system. In addition, it is a data format well known to consumers and physicians -- one they are comfortable with and can trust."

AIIM and ASTM invite and encourage interested parties capable of contributing technical expertise and industry experience to actively participate in this collaborative effort. Interested persons can register to participate on the committee by contacting AIIM via email at standards@aiim.org. The committee meets biweekly via conference call and holds several working group meetings focused on specific aspects of the Best Practices Guide. For more information visit, www.aiim.org/standards.

The following organizations have demonstrated ongoing support and commitment for PDF/H working group:

"Forms completion is an important part of Pediatric practice, and PDF/H will provide methods for developing standard forms that can be automatically filled in using data in practice information systems as well as the ability to import and re-use data that patient's bring on previously completed forms. A standard child health record implemented using PDF/H will be an efficient way for parents to carry and share data about their children that all future health care providers should see," said Alan E. Zuckerman, MD, American Academy of Pediatrics, Council on Clinical Information Technology.

"PDF is already widely used by physicians and consumers. PDF/H leverages this familiarity and provides the needed guidance on how to use this ubiquitous technology in healthcare," said Steven E. Waldren, M.D., director of AAFP's Center for HIT.

"PDF/H will make healthcare information exchange painless. Accurate patient data will be immediately accessible to those who need it most -- doctors and their staff -- resulting in safer, more affordable care," observed John Calder of Generator LLC.

"With the advancement of electronic health records, it is important to have specifications in place to support this progression," said Girish Kumar Navani, president of eClinicalWorks. "By bringing together key industry leaders, PDF/H will help ensure the secure and reliable transmission of healthcare information in a format that is widely accepted. These industry best practices will help improve the overall quality of patient care."

"NextGen Healthcare is very pleased to be involved with this endeavor. We believe PDF/H can be an ideal vehicle to advance the vision of interoperable healthcare solutions and perfectly complements other nationwide initiatives," said Robert Barker, NextGen Healthcare's National Interoperability Analyst.

"As a healthcare certification authority and a vendor of a secure PHR, we are very pleased to be participants with the PDF-H initiative and the concentrated industry effort on producing best practices that give guidance on implementation of a portable, private and secure healthcare document container," said Lory Wood, Good Health Network's CIO/CTO. "The public is very familiar with using the PDF reader, so user adoption should be rapid and painless. Our ability to incorporate the CCR in a PDF-H container will definitely empower the consumer."

AIIM International

AIIM is the international authority on Enterprise Content Management (ECM) -- the tools and technologies used to capture, manage, store, preserve, and deliver content and documents related to organizational processes. ECM enables four key business drivers: Continuity, Collaboration, Compliance, and Costs.

For over 60 years, AIIM has been the leading non-profit organization focused on helping users to understand the challenges associated with managing documents, content, records, and business processes. Today, AIIM is international in scope, independent, implementation-focused, and, as the representative of the entire ECM industry -- including users, suppliers, and the channel -- acts as the industry's intermediary.

As a neutral and unbiased source of information, AIIM serves the needs of its members and the industry by providing educational opportunities, professional development, reference and knowledge resources, networking events, and industry advocacy. Visit AIIM's Industry Watch BLOG at http://aiim.typepad.com/aiim_blog/

ASTM International

ASTM International is one of the largest voluntary standards development organizations in the world-a trusted source for technical standards for materials, products, systems, and services. Known for their high technical quality and market relevancy, ASTM International standards have an important role in the information infrastructure that guides design, manufacturing and trade in the global economy. ASTM Committee E31 on Healthcare Informatics is the sponsoring ASTM technical Committee working on this project. ASTM Committee E31 on Healthcare Informatics develops standards related to the architecture, content, storage, security, confidentiality, functionality, and communication of information used within healthcare and healthcare decision making, including patient-specific information and knowledge.

For more information, contact:
Betsy Fanning
AIIM
301-755-2682
bfanning@aiim.org