ONC Targets 2024 For Full Health IT Interoperability

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) has set its sights on 2024 as the target for achieving system-wide interoperability in the United States, according to ten-year plan published recently by the federal agency. Writing on HealthITBuzz, National Coordinator Karen DeSalvo, MD, MPH, MSc, has drawn attention to the release of an ONC paper outlining her department’s timeline for creating a health IT infrastructure capable of supporting the secure and efficient flow of data among providers, patients, and researchers.

The current National Coordinator has championed the cause of interoperability since assuming her post in the beginning of 2014 and it appears it will be her legacy:

“We know that consumers increasingly demand that their data flow and follow them across care settings and beyond,” she wrote last week. “Payment and delivery system reform are driving a desire from employers, payers, and health systems to share data to reduce redundancy and waste and improve care. Clinicians are ready for data to enable and inform care and improve their efficiency. Innovators are stretching our imagination on ways to collect and appropriately use data to improve health...