"EHRs are not just electronic versions of paper records but rather tools that enable transformation in the way care is delivered, documented, measured and improved," added Kaushal.

This past summer, the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) wrote to AHRQ Director Carolyn Clancy, MD, requesting clear guidance for what it called "one of the most daunting challenges providers face today"  -  a mix of competing ways to measure clinical quality.

"Given the current reality of quality measurement, we believe AHRQ should focus its research on defining clear 'next steps' for providers to use health IT in quality measurement," wrote CHIME's President and CEO Richard A. Correll and Drex DeFord, CHIME's board chair at the time.

CHIME asked AHRQ to help other agencies under the Department of Health and Human Services to "harmonize quality measure efforts as a way to standardize specifications for measures used in multiple reporting programs."

"We recommend that AHRQ look to develop practical ways that both EHRs and other health IT systems can be used to aid current workflows and processes so that abstractors can more efficiently perform quality assurance and CQMs [clinical quality measures] can increasingly be more meaningful," wrote Correll and DeFord.