Associations Call On ONC To Include Patient-Generated Data In Stage 3

As policymakers start designing the third phase of Meaningful Use, eight healthcare and IT groups are asking the ONC’s Health IT Policy Committee to commit to including patient-generated health data in the requirements.

“We cannot fully underscore how important it is for the HITPC to recommend the use and integration of patient-generated health data as part of the MU Stage 3 requirements,” wrote the American Telemedicine Association, the Association for Competitive Technology, the Center for Data Innovation, the Continua Health Alliance, the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society, IHE USA, the Telecommunications Industry Association and the Wireless-Life Sciences Alliance.

The National eHealth Collaborative defines patient-generated health data as “health-related data created, recorded, gathered, or inferred by or from patients or their designees to help address a health concern,” and an NeHC technical panel also recently concluded that patient-generated data “can enhance patient care and raise accountability by healthcare providers, among other benefits,” the groups wrote to Paul Tang, MD, vice chairman of the HIT Policy Committee and an internist at Sutter Health in California.