Frequently Asked Questions

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• What is the Mission of AmericanEHR Partners?

  AmericanEHR Partners is dedicated to the creation of an online community of clinicians who use information technology to deliver care to Americans. Through education, social media and the collection of peer contributed data we organize information to facilitate optimal decision making.

• Who is the ACP?

  The American College of Physicians (ACP) is the largest medical specialty organization and the second-largest physician group in the United States. ACP members include 133,000 internal medicine physicians (internists), related subspecialists, and medical students. Internists specialize in the prevention, detection, and treatment of illness in adults. From 2008 to 2010, ACP ran a similar EHR advisory service for their membership called the EHR Partners Program. The EHR Partners Program is a precursor to AmericanEHR Partners, which has been developed in conjunction with Cientis Technologies.

• Who is Cientis Technologies?

  Cientis Technologies Inc. is a Canadian-based corporation founded in 2005 with headquarters in Vancouver, British Columbia. Cientis Technologies operates internationally and has developed a proprietary online platform that provides physicians and their practice teams with tools to select, adopt, and use Electronic Health Record Systems.

• What is the relationship between the American College of Physicians and Cientis Technologies?

  The American College of Physicians and Cientis Technologies are founders in the development of AmericanEHR Partners. AmericanEHR has been developed to provide a comprehensive program that is free to all U.S. physicians and their practice teams. Cientis Technologies owns and manages the proprietary technology platform used to deliver the AmericanEHR program.

• Who are the other Professional Societies participating in AmericanEHR Partners?

  AmericanEHR Partners includes several other participating societies. A complete list can be found here. AmericanEHR Partners is open to all professional societies wishing to participate in order to provide a member service and to contribute content that can be used collaboratively by multiple users and organizations. Participating professional societies receive access to detailed data dashboards regarding their society members; they can add customized questions to the member survey related to specific needs of their specialty or sub-specialty members.

• Does the program endorse or recommend any product or service?

  AmericanEHR Partners does not endorse any products or services. The program publishes ratings on certified EHR systems. Ratings are based on surveys completed by physicians, physician assistants and nurse practitioners conducted in conjunction with their professional societies. Ratings are displayed on all EHR vendors regardless of their participation in the program.

• What is the Governance Structure that Oversees AmericanEHR Partners?

  The ACP and Cientis Technologies together manage the AmericanEHR Partners program through a joint governance and editorial process. Four advisory groups were established to provide feedback on the AmericanEHR Partners program: Clinical Advisory, Professional Society Advisory, EHR Vendor Advisory, and a Stakeholder Advisory that includes national organizations not represented in the first three advisory groups.

• How are EHR Vendors chosen to participate in the program?

  The AmericanEHR Partners program is open to vendors with a nationally recognized certification such as ONC-ATCB (Meaningful Use) Certification and/or a valid CCHIT certification. Vendors pay a yearly fee to complete their profile and populate the comparison information. Vendors are provided with an administrative account through which they can manage and update their product information on an ongoing basis. EHR product rating results are published regardless of a vendor’s participation in the program.

• How are the ratings for EHR vendors calculated?

  EHR Product ratings are based on surveys of physicians, physician assistants and nurse practitioners conducted in conjunction with their professional societies. Ratings are only displayed once a minimum number of survey responses have been received; the current minimum value is 10 ratings. The rating scores are aggregated from the relevant questions asked in the EHR satisfaction surveys, and these questions are available to the public.

  A Benchmark Rating is provided as a comparison value against which all EHR products with published rating scores can be measured. The Benchmark Rating is the average cumulative score for all approved ratings, across all EHR products in a selected category. An 'n' value is provided for published EHR ratings and Benchmark Ratings. The 'n' value is the total number of ratings that have been published for each question or category.

• How is AmericanEHR Partners funded?

  AmericanEHR Partners receives revenue through website advertising and sponsorship. All advertising and sponsorship must adhere to specific guidelines developed by ACP and Cientis Technologies — the founding partners of the site. In addition, eligible vendors (those with a valid ONC-ATCB Certification) can pay a fee to participate on the site and be listed as participating vendors. Participating vendors are required to sign an agreement describing their roles and responsibilities to maintain product information in a product profile.

• What are the financial relationships between the EHR Vendors and AmericanEHR Partners?

  It is the objective of AmericanEHR Partners to encourage broad participation by the EHR vendor community in order to provide comprehensive information to members that is appropriate to their needs. To create a profile on the site and manage the RFI process, vendors can elect to pay either a yearly fee of $7,200 or a performance fee for proposal requests (RFIs) that are submitted by members for EHR products. The vendor performance payment model was implemented in August 2012 as an alternate mechanism that would encourage broader participation by a wider range of vendors, particularly those that are new to the market, smaller in size, or support niche markets or specialties. User rating data is presented on all EHR vendors with a minimum of 10 verified ratings irrespective of participation in the program.

• Does AmericanEHR Partners receive any kickbacks from EHR vendors if a practice chooses a particular product or services?

  No, AmericanEHR Partners does not receive money from EHR vendors based on sales of their product(s).

• How is the educational content of the site selected and what parameters have been developed to keep the information unbiased?

  Content is assembled from a large array of sources including the partnering societies. AmericanEHR Partners does review all of the educational material posted on the site; however, this should not be taken to indicate that there has been a formal peer review process for all the content. All content will clearly indicate its source. ACP and Cientis have developed a detailed editorial policy that outlines acceptable and unacceptable content.

• How is advertising/sponsorship handled on AmericanEHR Partners?

  AmericanEHR Partners allows advertising on its site and is open to EHR vendors. In addition, sponsorship opportunities are available. All advertisements and sponsorships are clearly labeled; however, certain sections of the site do not permit advertising. Vendors of EHR systems or organizations that own an EHR vendor may not be a sponsor.

• Is the data collected by AmericanEHR Partners publicly available?

  Yes, the data collected by AmericanEHR Partners will be available to the public in a blinded manner in the form of EHR product ratings. AmericanEHR Partners may distribute blinded data collected from the program to other organizations for research purposes.