On June 3, I chaired the Pharmacy e-Health Information Technology (HIT) Collaborative meeting at the National Community Pharmacists Association headquarters in Alexandria, VA. The meeting brought together the founding members of the collaborative plus new Associate Members (National Council for Prescription Drug Programs, RelayHealth, Surescripts, and Medco Health Solutions).

One action item was to incorporate management of the Pharmacist Services Technical Advisory Coalition into the collaborative. Collaborative members unanimously voted to approve a budget for the collaborative through December 2012, and the contract of Shelly Spiro, Director of the Pharmacy e-HIT Collaborative, was extended to the end of the budget term.

The collaborative has made significant progress on moving the electronic health record forward for pharmacy practice while addressing the coding needs for pharmacist-provided patient care services, and increasing the profession’s presence at the table of current HIT discussions.

The next scheduled meeting of the Pharmacy e-HIT Collaborative Council will be on August 24, 2011. Questions on the Pharmacy e-HIT Collaborative can be addressed to Jim Owen at jowen@aphanet.org.