TheraDoc CEO Named to CCHIT Work Group on Advanced Clinical Decision Support
SALT LAKE CITY, July 1, 2009 – Stanley Pestotnik, M.S., R.Ph., president, chief executive officer, and co-founder of TheraDoc, will work with other healthcare informatics stakeholders on creating certification programs for advanced clinical decision support technology and addressing priorities of the federal economic stimulus package.
Pestotnik is one of 265 members recently named by the Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology (CCHIT) to participate in 19 volunteer work groups that will explore new paths to certification and rapid, widespread adoption and meaningful use of electronic medical records and clinical decision support as called for under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA).
The CCHIT is a private, nonprofit organization that has been recognized by the federal government as an official certification body for health information technology. Pestotnik will participate in its Advanced Clinical Decision Support work group, which will play a key role in efforts to increase the adoption of health information technology to improve the safety and efficiency of healthcare.
Pestotnik pioneered the use of clinical decision support for infectious disease prevention and other patient safety issues. For more than 20 years, he conceptualized, designed, and implemented hospital-based computerized decision support programs that enhanced antibiotic management and helped reduce healthcare-associated infections. This work led him to co-found TheraDoc, which has set the standard for real-time surveillance and expert clinical decision support technologies, and has been adopted by hospitals across the country.
TheraDoc has long worked closely with Health Level 7, the Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute, the Centers for Disease Control and Preventions, and other organizations to aid in the development of interoperability and communications standards that enable disparate healthcare applications to exchange and use clinical and administrative data.
Pestotnik said he is honored to join leaders in the field on creating certification standards for clinical decision support technology. "Advanced clinical decision support takes the torrent of clinical information from diverse hospital sources and transforms it into evidence-based knowledge," he said. "When that knowledge is delivered in a timely manner to the appropriate clinician, patient care is positively impacted. Under the ARRA, billions of dollars in public funds are being invested in healthcare information technology, and certification will help ensure that electronic health records and clinical decision support technology deliver on their promise to improve the quality, safety, and efficiency of patient care."
About TheraDoc
Founded in 1999, TheraDoc is a clinical informatics company dedicated to improving patient care through enhanced clinical decision making. The company provides innovative products that improve clinical and financial outcomes for a range of provider and payer organizations, including leading healthcare providers Johns Hopkins, the National Institutes of Health, and Emory Healthcare. The company's founders and core medical informatics team are internationally recognized for their pioneering work and continuing effort in clinical decision support design and development, which spans two decades. For more information, visit www.theradoc.com.
