Translating ideals for health information technology into practice.

Standards for communication, content, function, and clinical knowledge are essential for electronic health records and e-prescribing, as well as other health information technologies. The current process for standard setting is competitive and voluntary, and it does not ensure that accepted standards will be incorporated into health information products. A three-tier architecture of development (research and validation), authorization (approval and dissemination), and certification (product evaluation) will make standards a core feature of future health information technology. Patient safety, health information technology uptake, and portability of data would all be enhanced by an orderly standard-diffusion process.