It appears medical record vendors as mentioned in a prior post have found another marketing partner with the REC centers offering discounts for purchase with licensing and now with HIMSS involved I’m not exactly sure how this will add more value, but perhaps more knowledge about the individual medical record systems.
What’s Happening at ONC REC Centers and HIE Initiative Centers-Connecting, Licensing, Training and Getting A Little Cozy?
Just as an off the wall comment here, if the medical record vendors play this right they can farm off all their support to the REC Centers and then remain as just a sales and marketing arm, a new business model developing? This is just me speculating on who’s aligning with who and where.
Regional Extension Center (REC) Working in Florida-What the Centers Are Doing to Help Physicians With Electronic Medical Records
They come in different shapes and sizes and some services are free and some are low cost. At the link below is some additional background on the centers and how they got started. 
Health Information Technology Extension Program (REC) To Support and Help Providers Adapt and Understand Meaningful Use With EHRs
The vendors have all to gain here and I am guessing the feedback or whatever else comes from the REC centers will be extended to the education side of HIMSS as well? If they haven’t already, the REC centers should be flooded with medical record vendors wanting to get acquainted and some centers even offer software licensing on some systems at a discount and how that works out long range, I don’t know but it will be interesting to watch it as for some reason or another I somehow see some competitive issues surfacing along the way. BD
ORLANDO, Fla., Feb. 21, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Regional Extension Center (REC), Vendor Selection and Management Community of Practice (VSM CoP) and the HIMSS EHR Association (EHR Association) announced today the formation of a joint initiative, the EHR Vendor Communications Workgroup, in recognition of the need for long-term cooperation and collaboration among RECs and EHR companies to benefit healthcare providers and their patients as they implement EHRs and work toward meeting meaningful use requirements. The overarching goal of this new Workgroup is to ensure that the adoption and use of health information technology (HIT) results in improved efficiencies, usability, healthcare quality, clinical decision support, and better outcomes.
"Collaborating toward our shared goal of supporting high quality, safe healthcare will benefit consumers, their healthcare providers, as well as EHR software companies and the RECs," stated Mat Kendall, Director of the Office of Provider Adoption Support. "Our new charter has established a framework for establishing achievable goals, developing mutual best practices, and sharing knowledge," Kendall went on to say.
Cool! I think with this idea, it can be more easier to communicate with the vendors in case there is a problem. Thanks for sharing this information. Looking forward for your next post.
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Great news. They continue improving and improving. Nowdays it's hard to find a problem without a technical solution. The vendors must be thrilled. And doctors as well.
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