American Health Information Community

Overview
The American Health Information Community (AHIC) is a federal advisory body, chartered in 2005 to make recommendations to the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services on how to accelerate the development and adoption of health information technology. AHIC was formed by the Secretary to help advance efforts to achieve President Bush’s goal for most Americans to have access to secure electronic health records by 2014.

Plans are now underway to establish a successor to the AHIC. In July, the AHIC Successor, Inc. was incorporated as a public-private corporation. The new organization is continuing its transition preparation to ensure that it can build on the progress achieved to date. This new public-private partnership will develop a unified approach to realize an effective, interoperable nationwide health information system that supports the health and well-being of the people of this country.

Since its formation in 2005, the AHIC identified four initial areas with potential for early breakthroughs in the advancement of standards that will lead to interoperability. The AHIC organized four workgroups to pursue recommendations in these areas, and delivered their first set of recommendations to the Secretary in May of 2006. Three additional workgroups were subsequently formed to address a wider range of issues, and the seven workgroups delivered recommendations to the Secretary in 2007 and 2008. The AHIC will hold its final meeting in November 2008.