The successor to the American Health Information Community was officially christened this week as the National eHealth Collaborative, whose goals will continue to be building a national health information network to speed improvements in the quality, safety, efficiency and accessibility of health care.

At its first board of directors meeting Jan. 8, the group stated its intention "to drive the rapid development and adoption of an interoperable health system." The Collaborative was formed last year to build on work done by the AHIC, a federal advisory committee established in 2005 to create a secure, interoperable IT system for exchanging health information.

In December, under the auspices of the interim AHIC Successor, Inc., the group elected Dr. John Tooker, chief executive officer of the American College of Physicians, to serve as chair of the 2009 Board of Directors.

Its other 2009 officers are Kevin Hutchison, chief executive officer of Prematics, Inc., as vice chairman, Thomas Fritz, CEO of Inland Northwest Health Services, as treasurer, and Laura Miller, the group's interim executive director, as secretary.

Underlying the group's sense of urgency are political and financial pressures.

With a new administration coming to Washington, D.C., and a massive federal stimulus plan under consideration, some policy experts believe the environment for overhauling the country's health care system is favorable. The Health Information and Management Systems Society has called on the new administration to spend a minimum of $25 billion on the adoption of electronic medical records by nongovernmental hospitals.

"Twenty-five billion [dollars] moving into this area could be a game-changer," said John Loonsk, director of interoperability and standards at the Office of the National Coordinator of Health IT, at the board meeting.

Some critics have suggested that allocation of those funds should be deferred until interoperability standards are in place. But Loonsk, remarking on recent progress made in that area, told the board that a lack of technical standards is "no longer the major obstacle to advancing interoperability."

He nonetheless conceded that implementing those standards "is very challenging."

Board members were scheduled to meet with members of President-elect Barack Obama's transition team Jan. 9th to brief them on the group's plans.