A different kind of standardized medical record may soon reach provider offices–and patients’ hands, too. The continuity of care record (CCR) is an XML document standard for a summary of personal health information that patients can carry from one provider to another, eliminating the need for transfer of paper records and repeatedly filling out medical history forms. The CCR is a joint effort of ASTM International, HIMSS and the Massachusetts Medical Society (MMS).

ASTM International was expected to approve a final draft of the CCR in January, said MMS President Thomas Sullivan, M.D. Microsoft and MMS will also offer a demonstration of the CCR at this year’s HIMSS conference.

Information can be stored on a memory stick or a disk, as either a PDF file or a Microsoft Word document. The CCR would be an ongoing record of care, created or updated at the end of every healthcare encounter and available for review by the next provider, no matter what and where the healthcare setting might be. The result, the associations say, would be documents that will better guide providers in the care process, based on timely patient information. Patients also may request a CCR printout to provide current information for other healthcare providers. An authorized physician could open the document through any standard Internet browser.

Sullivan hopes the CCR will bridge the gaps between often-incompatible systems among healthcare organizations. The initial record offers a minimum data set, but extensions to the CCR will offer specialty-oriented information fields for individual types of physicians, Sullivan said. For instance, a pathologist might want a way to include tumor reports in the CCR, or a pediatrician might need a way to record a child’s head circumference.

Once the CCR gains ASTM’s approval, it will post a version of the CCR on its Web site and allow users to demo and test the product. Sullivan expects major vendors like Microsoft and Siemens to join the trade associations in promoting the CCR.

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