(NQF: Washington, D.C.) -- National Quality Forum is formally soliciting candidate measures for review and evaluation for potential inclusion in its set of NQF-endorsed voluntary consensus standards for health care information technology (HIT). Any organization or individual may submit measures for consideration. All proposed measures must be submitted by 6:00 p.m. Eastern Time, January 18, 2008.

In October 2007, a Notice of Intent was issued for candidate structural health IT measures.

To be included as part of the initial evaluation, candidate consensus standards must meet the following general criteria:
1. Be open source or in the public domain
2. Apply to the clinician practice level or individual clinician-level performance
3. Focus on structural measures related to the effective use of the following information technologies in clinician practice, such as, but not limited to:
     • e-prescribing, including drug interactions, safety alerts, and formulary management tools
     • Electronic health records (EHRs), including capability for interoperability
     • Evidence-based clinical decision support systems (CDSS)
     • Clinical messaging, including patient-provider and provider-provider
     • e-referrals (e.g. consultation, diagnostic studies)
     • Computerized provider-order entry (CPOE)
     • Reporting to clinical registries and tracking systems that, in addition to a data repository function, analyze, and report process and outcomes data that:
        — Provides feedback to member practitioners for quality improvement
        — Are used in quality recognition programs
        — Are used for maintenance of board certification.

Emphasis will be placed on structural measures that assess the effective use of HIT, including measures that can be associated with evidence of improved processes or outcomes.

All of the information provided on the “Measure Submission Form” must be submitted for each measure. Please note that no material will be accepted without fully executing the intellectual property agreement. All materials not meeting this requirement will be returned to the sender.

For more information, visit http://qualityforum.org./pdf/projects/hit/HITStructuralMeasures_CallForMeasures.doc