Several leading academic medical centers and community health systems have formed a coalition to join the debate over the direction of healthcare information technology.

The Academic and Community Health Technology Alliance (ACHTA) seeks to ensure that the debate takes into account the realities faced by academic and community hospitals that have already made significant investments in health information technology. Founding members include  Advocate Health Care, the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, the Health Network of Chester County Hospital, Continuum Health Partners, Danbury Health Systems and the Memorial Healthcare System.

As a group, the founding members operate 40 hospitals with about 13,000 beds, and. last year recorded about 571,000 inpatient admissions and 9.6 million outpatient visits. They have invested more than $1.2 billion dollars over the past five years in the deployment of healthcare IT in their health systems and the community.

"The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) believes the strategic use of technology is a requirement to achieving our core mission – to provide high-quality, cost-effective healthcare," said David Westfall, vice president of emerging technologies for UPMC. "As the digital revolution provides ever increasing amounts of data, it will be the role of technology to transform this data into actionable knowledge. ACHTA is a natural collaboration for us at UPMC as it brings together leading healthcare organizations dedicated to sharing ideas and promoting widespread information technology to develop best practices, compliance tools, and education."

The group's founders say ACHTA's cross-section of community and teaching hospitals will bring a unique and invaluable perspective to the debate. They say ACHTA will help policymakers at the Department of Health and Human Services and the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology as the nation moves toward the widespread adoption of electronic health records and the development of a national infrastructure to support the secure sharing of health information.

"We are delighted to join with our other hospital partners nationwide in exploring all avenues to further advance the goals of President Obama's ambitious healthcare-based IT stimulus agenda," said Gail F. Donovan, executive vice president and chief operating officer for Continuum Health Partners. "Furthering the application of technological advances such as electronic medical records, no doubt, will be critical to advancing the quality of medical care and improving patient outcomes and patient satisfaction."