A new era for health IT, for certification — and for myself

Today, Dr. Karen Bell begins her role as chair of the Certification Commission.  I believe the organization and its volunteers will have an exciting future ahead under her leadership.  There will be challenges, of course: when health IT adoption became a topic for Federal legislation and spending, it also became an inseparable part of the vigorous debate on how we can improve the delivery and financing of health care.  But the potential opportunities ahead for the organization far outweigh the challenges.  I will be following the progress of this continuing initiative with great interest.

Today also marks the day I begin the next phase of my life.  Though some call it ‘retiring,’  I think of it as  rewiring – a rearrangement of priorities, certainly not a retreat from being engaged with life.  I have been privileged to work at a number of quite different careers, yet I consider the past 6 years at CCHIT to be one of the most rewarding and educational of all those experiences.  It was particularly enlightening to experience what can be achieved by volunteers working collaboratively outside the bounds of the traditional employment model.  I also gained a deeper insight into the complex pathways through which our government functions.  All these lessons will be valuable as I tackle whatever lies ahead for me.

I extend my congratulations and thanks to all: our staff, the volunteers who have served on our work groups, our Commission and Board of Trustees, and everyone else who has contributed to our success in pioneering the way to certification of health IT.