ACP Advocacy at Internal Medicine 2010

The ACP Advocate

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April 30, 2010
In this issue
» Going Electronic Holds Hope for Better Health Care

» E-Prescribing Takes Another Step Forward

» New ACP President to Pursue Fairness, Efficiency in Health Care




About this newsletter

The ACP Advocate is an e-newsletter, edited by the College's Washington, DC governmental affairs division, created to provide you, our members, with succinct news about public policy issues affecting internal medicine and patient care. To learn more about ACP's Advocacy and to access the ACP Advocate archives, go to www.acponline.org/advocacy.

Welcome to The ACP Advocate.

I spent last week in Toronto at ACP’s annual meeting.  Our first story this week details a new policy paper that we released at the meeting, EHR-Based Quality Measurement and Reporting—Critical for Meaningful Use and Health Care Improvement.  The paper lays out the framework necessary to ensure that electronic health records systems are put to “meaningful” use in physician practices.

Our second story looks at a new rule from the Drug Enforcement Agency that would allow physicians to prescribe controlled substances through electronic prescribing systems.  If done correctly, shifting these prescriptions to an electronic format has the potential to increase both the safety and convenience of prescribing controlled substances.

Finally, our last story also looks at something that happened in Toronto:  the annual changing of the ACP guard.  Our new president, J. Fred Ralston, MD, FACP tells you a little about what he sees upcoming for ACP advocacy over the next year.  Dr. Ralston has been active with ACP’s government affairs for years and we’re looking forward to working with him to sort through the implementation of health care reform. 

For more coverage of what’s happening in Washington, take a look at my award-winning blog, The ACP Advocate Blog by Bob Doherty.  

And, as always, please send your feedback and suggestions on this newsletter to:  TheACPAdvocate@acponline.org.

Yours truly,

Bob Doherty
Senior Vice President
Governmental Affairs and Public Policy
American College of Physicians


In the news
» Going Electronic Holds Hope for Better Health Care
  ACP report explains why's and wherefore's of new technology
 

Why electronic health records? Advocates say the potential to substantially improve the quality of health care is huge. Physicians may eventually have immediate access to all patient records, including lab tests, consulting doctors' reports and information... » Click to read the full article


» E-Prescribing Takes Another Step Forward
  New government rule would allow use for controlled substances
 

Electronic transmission of prescriptions for controlled substances is expected to be allowed for the first time starting June 1.

The long-awaited rule from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) will permit physicians to submit prescri... » Click to read the full article


» New ACP President to Pursue Fairness, Efficiency in Health Care
  'The devil is going to be in the details' as new law gets implemented, J. Fred Ralston says
 

At a time of uncertainly and flux in the health-care system, Dr. J. Fred Ralston, the new president of the American College of Physicians, sees h... » Click to read the full article


In focus
ACP Twitters Leadership Day
Leadership Day is fast approaching on May 18 & 19. Are you interested in the latest news leading up-to, and during, the event? To further our advocacy conversation we have established a hash-tag (#ACPLD) to tag all tweets about Leadership Day. The College will be using the tag to label the tweets we send out, and we encourage Twitter users to tag any posts they make about Leadership Day.


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