U.S., U.K. to collaborate on health IT, data projects

HHS and health authorities in the United Kingdom agreed to collaborate on a broad scope of health information technology and health data projects and practices. A six-page memorandum of understanding (PDF) was to be signed Friday by HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, Chief Technology Officer Bryan Sivak, and their counterparts in the National Health Service of England and the U.K.'s healthcare data handling and standards development agency.

It builds on several trans-Atlantic health IT initiatives, including a multinational pact between the U.S. and the European Commission on technology and data in 2010, and a bilateral summit between U.S. and U.K. officials last summer. Candidates projects under the agreement include harmonizing clinical quality indicators and analyzing various approaches to putting healthcare data to work, said Dr. Rebecca Mitchell Coelius, medical officer for innovation in the Office of Science and Technology at the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology at HHS...

...The agreement came as no surprise to Dr. Seong Ki Mun, president and CEO of the Open Source Electronic Health Record Alliance, a not-for-profit organization formed by the Veterans Affairs Department to oversee future development of its now largely open source VistA electronic health-record system. Mun said he met with U.K. officials during their visit here in June and it seemed clear then that there had been a meeting of the minds on collaboration...