National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC)

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A Tale Of Two IT Procurements

David Blumenthal | The Health Care Blog | November 24, 2013

Recently, the President of the United States, the most powerful person on earth, the man whose finger rests on the nuclear button, struck a bold blow for . . . procurement reform? Read More »

Blue Button Mashup Challenge

Damon Davis | Health 2.0 | August 19, 2012

We recently announced a new Investing in Innovation (i2) competition that calls on developers to create an app that mashes up an individual’s Blue Button personal health data with open public health data that will result in better health care, better health, and lower costs.  ONC’s i2 program promotes the use of technology to find solutions that drive better outcomes, engage users in their health, and improve health care quality.

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ECRI Institute Committed to Building National Health IT Safety Collaborative

Press Release | ECRI Institute, Alliance for Quality Improvement and Patient Safety (AQIPS), Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC), Pew Charitable Trusts | March 16, 2018

Building on the Partnership for Health IT Patient Safety, a multi-stakeholder collaborative, ECRI Institute is now responding to the call for a national program focused on improving health IT safety. ECRI Institute, together with the Alliance for Quality Improvement and Patient Safety (AQIPS), the Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC), and the Pew Charitable Trusts, sent a letter to the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) and the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) informing them of their shared vision for a national health IT safety collaborative. The letter includes the key characteristics needed for its success.

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Feature Overlaps Between Immunization Information Systems and EHRs

Immunization Information Systems (IIS) have been around for nearly twenty years. Their functionality, completeness, and usefulness have all increased over this time. IIS and electronic health record (EHR) systems have always had unique features, as well as some overlapping features, and the deployment of EHRs has enhanced the local immunization capabilities of clinician practices. Several critical clinical features that are considered to be core functions of IIS are beginning to be supported by EHRs. This article will review and discuss five such critical features: online data entry, clinical decision support for immunization, reminder-recall, practice-level assessment of up-to-date status, and patient access to their immunization data.

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Health Affairs Briefing at the National Press Club on Health IT Adoption & Use

National Coordinator for Health IT, Dr. Farzard Mostashari, delivered the opening remarks at the Health Affairs briefing on trends in the adoption of health information technology held this week at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.  Sharing 'open data' is prominent among the accumulating good news about the progress being made in adoption of electronic health record (EHR) systems across the U.S. Read More »

HHS Awards More Than $36 Million for Health Center Adoption of Health Information Technology

Press Release | Department of Health and Human Services | July 21, 2016

Today, Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Sylvia M. Burwell announced more than $36 million in funding for 50 Health Center Controlled Networks (HCCNs) in 41 states and Puerto Rico. This increase in health information technology support will impact over 1,020 participating health center organizations in all 50 states and Puerto Rico. HCCNs improve access to care, enhance quality of care and achieve cost efficiencies through the redesign of practices to integrate services, optimize patient outcomes, or negotiate managed care contracts on behalf of participating health centers...

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Is EHR data blocking really as bad as ONC claims?

Diana Manos | Healthcare IT News | June 13, 2016

Consensus that EHR vendors and profit-hungry hospitals are intentionally making it hard for patients and others to access date is based on evidence – much of it put forth by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT – that is largely anecdotal. Center for Medical Interoperability vice president Kerry McDermott says data blocking is a systemic issue because information sharing is a new practice in healthcare...

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NATE Creates Bridge of Trust Between Providers and Patients

Press Release | National Association for Trusted Exchange | March 4, 2015

The National Association for Trusted Exchange (NATE) today announced that the new NATE Blue Button for Consumers (NBB4C) Trust Bundle officially went live this week. Inaugural participants in the NBB4C Trust Community include some of the most widely used consumer health applications, including: Read More »

ONC Chief Farzad Mostashari To Step Down

Alex Kane Rudansky | InformationWeek | August 7, 2013

Farzad Mostashari, the national coordinator for health IT at Health and Human Services [HHS], will step down from his position this fall Read More »

ONC Plans Stronger EHR, Patient Safety Features

Mary Mosquera | Government Health IT | December 26, 2012

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT wants to use electronic health record certification criteria to make it easier for physicians to report patient safety events, which provide critical raw data for developers, healthcare providers, researchers and policymakers to improve the safety of health IT and make care safer. Read More »

ONC Releases "Governance Framework for Trusted Electronic Health Information Exchange"

The recently released "Governance Framework for Trusted Electronic Health Information Exchange" by the  Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology’s (ONC) provides guiding principles on health information exchange (HIE) governance. The framework was developed as an alternative to the abandoned pursuit by ONC of a more formal, centralized governance structure for the U.S. Nationwide Health Information Network (NHIN). Read More »

ONC Releases Beta Scorecard for C-CDA Documents

Greg Slabodkin | Health Data Management | July 20, 2016

A new tool released by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT is being offered to providers and developers to help them identify and resolve interoperability issues involving Consolidated Clinical Document Architecture (C-CDA) documents in their HIT systems. Read More »

ONC Selects Designs To Make EHRs More Consumer-Friendly

Mary Mosquera | Government Health IT | January 16, 2013

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT has selected the winning designs of printed health records to help patients better understand and use their electronic health records (EHRs). Read More »

ONC Unveils Blue Button Plus In Preparation For Stage 2 MU

Jennifer Bresnick | EHR Intelligence | January 18, 2013

The Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) has released the initial specifications for a rebranding of its Automated Blue Button Initiative, now known as Blue Button+. Read More »

Tech Companies Blew Their Chance with Health Records

Chris Tomlinson | Houston Chronicle | April 10, 2015

Turns out, though, that the tech industry is just as selfish as any other private concern. A new report from the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology finds that instead of innovating, companies developing electronic health records did their best to create expensive systems that were very difficult to share, all in the hope of locking clients into lucrative, long-term contracts. Instead of developing standardized, open source software that would allow the easy transfer of health records from a doctor's office in Houston to an emergency room in Dallas, software developers sold systems that make such a transfer almost impossible if the doctor and hospital don't have the same vendor.

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