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The initial federal definition of "meaningful use" of electronic health records should focus on improving medication management and the coordination of care. That's the recommendation of a new report endorsed by representatives of more than 60 organizations.

In the weeks ahead, the Department of Health and Human Services will offer guidelines for how hospitals and group practices can demonstrate "meaningful use" of EHRs to qualify for Medicare and Medicaid financial incentives under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The report, from the Markle Foundation, a New York-based think tank, offers a simple proposed meaningful use definition for 2011-2012, when incentives begin: "Demonstrates that the provider makes use of, and the patient has access to, clinically relevant electronic information about the patient to improve medication management and coordination of care."

The report notes: "The meaningful use definition must optimize achievability for providers and benefits to patients and consumers. Improving medication management and coordination of care provides early opportunities for such optimization. Meaningful use should initially rely on standard information types, such as recent medications and laboratory results, that are electronic and already widely adopted and that can support metrics to improve medication management and coordination of care."

The report urges the federal government to outline specific ways to measure progress toward the goals of improving health care quality, reducing growth in costs, stimulating innovation and protecting privacy. To view the full report, visit www.markle.org.

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