The Medical Record Institute is reporting another heavyweight backer has gotten behind the effort to create a standard Continuity of Care Record. According to an announcement made earlier today, the American Medical Association (AMA) has become an official sponsor of CCR initiative which is designed to enable healthcare providers to base future care on relevant and timely patient information.

Joseph Heyman, MD, a member of the AMA Board of Trustees and chair of the AMA EHR Workgroup, said, "Physicians need better and more efficient ways to access timely and relevant patient information with which to make clinical decisions at various points of care. The CCRsupports improved patient care by identifying a core set of patient datato be communicated from physician to physician."

The AMA is the nation's largest medical society, with a membership comprised of physicians and medical students from all states, all medical specialties and all state societies. Other CCR sponsors are ASTM International, Massachusetts Medical Society, Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS), American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP), American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), and thePatient Safety Institute (PSI).

In announcing the AMA as a CCR sponsor, Thomas E. Sullivan, MD, president of the Massachusetts Medical Society and co-chair of the ASTM E31 work group on the CCR, noted, "We are extremely pleased the AMA has joined the growing list of CCR sponsors at this early stage ofevolution... The AMA's decision to sponsor this standard, and the new technology it represents, is a sign of their forward looking vision, and of their leadership in the emerging area of quality improvement, enhanced patient safety and improved efficiency through the practical use of healthcare information technology."

Members of the ASTM E31 Committee on Health Informatics and its E31.28 Subcommittee on Electronic Health Records approved the CCR standard earlier this month; the standard awaits final review by ASTM's Committee on Standards before its release. Meanwhile, work has begun on development of an implementation guide and on plans to develop extensions to the CCR in pediatrics, long-term care, disease management, and the personal health record.