Identity of online critics not known

So who exactly are these critics questioning the relationship between HIMSS and CCHIT?

The most accusatory comments spreading across the Internet have come from people whose online identities could not be verified, and that has HIMSS wondering if a disgruntled ex-employee might be involved. HIMSS has put lawyers on the case. “We believe there were certain things said that meet the four-point requirement for defamation in the state of Illinois,” says HIMSS Corporate Counsel Racquel Orenick.

HIMSS actually had the law firm of Jackson Lewis write to Chilmark Research health IT analyst John Moore to see if Moore would help identify the source of vitriolic comments posted on his blog. “It was merely a request,” Orenick says.

Moore refused. “This is not a legal issue, this is a PR issue,” he says. Although Moore believes the unidentified commenter goes “completely off the deep end,” he says the screed does contain some valid critiques. “The relationship (between HIMSS and CCHIT) is a little cozy. HIMSS is predominantly a vendor organization,” Moore says.

Others share this sentiment. Scot Silverstein, MD, a biomedical informatics instructor at Drexel University in Philadelphia, and Hayward Zwerling, MD, president of healthcare IT vendor ComChart Medical Software, North Chelmsford, Mass., also say that HIMSS and CCHIT might be a little too closely linked.

In a Feb. 27 post on the Health Care Renewal blog Silverstein argues that there should be a congressional investigation of the healthcare IT industry as a whole. Zwerling, whose product has not gone through CCHIT testing, accuses the commission of all sorts of conflicts of interest, including the fact that HIMSS CEO H. Stephen Lieber is on the CCHIT Board of Trustees.

“Obviously, we have a cordial relationship with them,” Orenick says of CCHIT, but says there are no “cozy” arrangements behind the scenes. Orenick invites the public to look up the organization’s IRS Form 990 tax return.

Orenick says HIMSS likely would not be saying more about comments that can’t easily be traced to a specific individual. “I frankly don’t think it needs any more attention than it’s gotten,” she says.

For his part, Moore would like a greater explanation. “It’s incumbent upon you, HIMSS, to tell us why this is wrong, but instead they send out lawyers,” he says.