ONC
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Health Information Exchange Resist Cures (Part 2)
The previous section of this paper introduced problems found in HIE by two reports: one from the Office of the National Coordinator and another from experts at the Oregon Health & Science University. Tracing the causes of these problems is necessarily somewhat speculative, but the research helps to confirm impressions I have built up over the years. The ONC noted that developing HIE is very resource intensive, and not yet sustainable. (p. 6) I attribute these problems to the persistence of the old-fashioned, heavyweight model of bureaucratic, geographically limited organizations hooking together clinicians. (If you go to another state, better carry your medical records with you.) Evidence of their continued drag on the field appeared in the report...
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Health IT Centers of the Country: Unite!
The 62 regional extension centers created by the federal government to help small medical practices evaluate and adopt electronic health records have united to form a national association to advocate for the continued support of health IT. Read More »
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Health IT Groups Criticize Information Exchange Regulation Plan
Organizations representing private-sector stakeholders have reacted negatively to the framework for governance and operations of the Nationwide Health Information Network (NwHIN) that the Office of the National Coordinator of Health IT (ONC) described in a recent request for information (RFI). Read More »
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Health Reform Leaders Focus on Patient Access to Records as Key Barrier
A convocation of trend-setters and organizational leaders in U.S. health care was called together in Washington last Monday, June 4. The attendees advised two government organizations driving health reform--the Office of the National Coordinator at the Dept. of Health and Human Services, and the Dept. of Veteran Affairs--how to push forward one of their top goals, patient engagement.
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HHS Harnesses the Power of Health Data to Improve Health
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), along with the Institute of Medicine (IoM) and other members of the Health Data Consortium, are co-hosting the third annual “Datapalooza” focusing on innovative applications and services that harness the power of open data from HHS and other sources to help improve health and health care.
Lack of EHR interoperability is 'fraud' against taxpayers
Electronic health record vendors--particularly Epic--may not deserve Meaningful Use incentive money because their systems hinder data sharing, according to physician-turned-lawmaker Rep. Phil Gingrey (R-Ga.).
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Mobile Milestones: Blue-Button Health Data For Everyone
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is trying to do for the public what the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) did for veterans by building on the VA's popular "Blue Button" application, allowing patients to get their medical records electronically on their mobile devices. Read More »
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National Association Created to Represent Regional Extension Centers for Health Information Technology
New national group formed to provide a strong voice for the 62 Regional Extension Centers that provide assistance and guidance for the adoption and use of health information technology. Read More »
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Navigating between Heavy-weight and Light-weight Standardization
Andy Oram
FHIR is large and far-reaching but deliberately open-ended. Many details are expected tovary from country to country and industry to industry, and thus are left up to extensions that various players will design later. It is precisely in the extensions that the risk lurks of reproducing the Tower of Babel that exists in other health care standards. The reason the industry have good hopes for success this time is the unusual way in which the Argonaut project was limited in both time and scope. It was not supposed to cover the entire health field, as standards such as the International Classification of Diseases (ICD) try to do. It would instead harmonize the 90% of cases seen most often in the US. For instance, instead of specifying a standard of 10,000 codes, it might pick out the 500 that the doctor is most likely to see.
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Navigation Between Heavy-weight and Light-weight Standardization (Part 2)
The previous section of this article laid out the context for HL7 FHIR standard and the Argonaut project; now we can look at the current status.Tripathi portrays the Argonaut process as radically different from HL7 norms. HL7 hasestablished its leading role in health standards by following the rules of the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) in the US, and similar bodies set up in other countries where HL7 operates. These come from the pre-Internet era and emphasize ponderous, procedure-laden formalities. Meetings must be held, drafts circulated, comments explicitly reconciled, ballots taken. Historically this has ensured that large industries play fair and hear through all objections, but the process is slow and frustrates smaller actors who may have good ideas but lack the resources to participate.
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New Features Planned for CONNECT 3.3
The new year has arrived, and with the release of the next major version of CONNECT just around the corner in March, the development team is working hard preparing for the roll out of version 3.3. Read More »
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New ONC, Health 2.0 Developer Challenges Offer Cash Awards for Medical Apps
Conference organizer Health 2.0 and the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) within the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) have launched two new developer challenges for health care: "One in a Million Hearts" and "PopHealth Tools Development." Read More »
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ONC Announces the Winner of the Discharge Follow-up Appointment Challenge
At the Health Data Initiative (HDI) Forum III on Tuesday, Dr. Farzad Mostashari, National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, announced the winners of the Investing in Innovation initiative's (i2) Discharge Follow-Up Appointment Challenge. Read More »
ONC calls out information blockers
Having received many complaints in recent months about vendors and providers engaging in information blocking, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT is "becoming increasingly concerned about these practices, which devalue taxpayer investments in health IT and are fundamentally incompatible with efforts to transform the nation’s health system."
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ONC fail: EHR 'data blocking' still rampant
Manuel Prado, president of Viva Transcription, Santa Cruz, Calif., publicly complained two years ago about the high interface fees – up to $10,000 – that electronic health record vendors charged for each hospital or physician practice they connect to his transcription service. “That's data blocking,” he charged. “If taxpayers are contributing $44,000 or $63,000 (in federal Medicare and Medicaid incentive payments) for each EHR, it's not too much to ask” that they make interconnect charges free.
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