Carl Dvorak, executive vice president of Epic Systems, has been elected chairman of the HIMSS Electronic Health Record Association, and Charles Jarvis, vice president of healthcare services and government relations for NextGen Healthcare Information Systems, has been elected to the vice chair.

The EHR Association announced its new chair and vice chair June 16, along with executive committee election results based on voting by the full membership during May and June.
 
The Association is composed of 44 companies that supply the majority of EHRs in use in hospitals and physicians practices in the United States.

Dvorak was a founding member of the association, now in its fifth year. He also served on the executive committee from 2004 to 2006, and was re-elected in 2009.

Jarvis was first elected to the executive committee in 2007 and has also served as chair of the Communications Workgroup, the Government Initiatives Workgroup and the Ambulatory Special Interest Group.

Both will begin their one-year terms on July 1.

"I'm excited about the opportunity to lead the EHR Association as a resource for our collective customers in achieving 'meaningful use,' helping the industry and policymakers define open standards, and sharing best practices among EHR developers and users for safe and effective use of EHRs," said Dvorak.

Re-elected to the Executive Committee for two-year terms are:

• Rick Reeves, senior manager, product development services at CPSI, who has served as Certification Workgroup chair and on the Executive Committee since 2006;
• Jacob Reider, MD, chief medical informatics officer, Allscripts, who has served as chair of the Quality and Clinical Decision Support Special Interest Group and vice-chair of the Acceleration Workgroup, and joined the Executive Committee earlier this year to complete the term of a former Allscripts representative; and
• Mickey McGlynn, director, government and industry affairs for Siemens, who is current chair of the Government Affairs Workgroup where she has served since 2008.

Pamela Chapman, director of clinical product management for eMDs, also joins the Executive Committee as a new member with a one-year term.

"We have an important opportunity to support the transformation of our nation's healthcare system by working with policymakers and private organizations that share our mission of improving the quality and efficiency of healthcare through information technology," Jarvis said.
 
Dvorak succeeds Justin Barnes, vice president of marketing, corporate development and government affairs for Greenway Medical Technologies. Jarvis succeeds Mark Segal, vice president, government and industry affairs, GE Healthcare IT.
 
Barnes will continue to serve on the Executive Committee and as chairman emeritus.  Segal will also continue to serve on the Executive Committee and as past vice-chair.