Blue Button Technology Highlighted At Consumer Health IT Summit

The Blue Button program for sharing patient data was a major focus of the Consumer Health IT Summit on Monday, Modern Healthcare reports

The summit kicked off National Health IT Week (Conn, Modern Healthcare, 9/16).

In 2010, the Department of Veterans Affairs launched a Blue Button tool to help veterans access and exchange their personal health data in a standard, consistent manner. Since then, other private and federal agencies have implemented the tool (iHealthBeat, 1/24).

Blue Button Use, Adoption Increases

Lygeia Ricciardi -- director of consumer eHealth at the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT -- said nearly 500 health care organizations have joined the Blue Button Pledge Program. She said the organizations could make the data sharing technology available to more than 100 million individuals (Modern Healthcare, 9/16).