New This Week on HealthIT.gov

In This Issue

We all hit the ground running this week and there is a little something for everyone on HealthIT.gov, so please take a second to peruse!

New Privacy & Security Game

This week, we released our second Web-based security training game, "CyberSecure: Your Medical Practice" for healthcare providers and staff. The new game focuses on disaster planning, data backup, recovery and other elements of contingency planning. Contingency planning helps providers and staff prepare their offices and practices for power outages, floods, fires or natural disasters such as hurricanes, tornadoes or floods. These events can damage patient health information or make it unavailable (and if it’s in paper form, destroy it). Planning for these events can help make sure that patient health information is protected and can be accessed when the disaster is over.

Take a couple of minutes to play the game!

Breaking News: New ONC HIE study

A new study published earlier today in the American Journal of Managed Care examined data from a 2011 nationally representative survey of office-based physicians and found the majority were able to view lab results and send medication data electronically. The study also found that one-third could send and/or receive patient clinical summaries with other providers and that the adoption of an EHR was the single strongest predictor of electronic exchange capability for e-prescribing, lab test viewing or ordering, and exchanging clinical summaries. It also found that not all EHR vendors offer equivalent exchange capability.

Health IT Workforce Development Program

Are you looking for a career in Health IT? As the nation moves towards a more technologically advanced health care system, providers will need a highly skilled health IT workforce to support them in the adoption, implementation and meaningful use of electronic health records.

Did you know the ONC funded a Health IT Workforce Development Program that provides resources to cultivate Health IT professionals? Health IT Professionals are in demand to help providers implement electronic health records to improve health care quality, safety, and cost-effectiveness. Learn more about:

Interoperability conference

The Gary and Mary West Health Institute (WHI) andONC are co-hosting the HCI-DC Interoperability: Igniting an Interoperable Health Care System, conference on Feb. 6 at the Washington Omni Shoreham hotel. We want to meet with people who can help drive interoperability in healthcare, a cornerstone to improving patient health and delivering more cost-effective health care.

Medical interoperability, the ability for health information to be seamlessly shared among medical devices and health systems to optimize health care, is a tremendous challenge. This conference will provide a venue for providers, payers, vendors and health systems to collaborate and partner to advance interoperability. The day-long program will feature keynote speeches, expert panels and collaborative networking sessions.

The conference is open to policymakers, federal employees, health care advocates, business leaders, business development executives, academics, and product and technology specialists with a focus on or interest in health information technology, particularly in the area of interoperability. There is no charge to attend, so please put it on your calendar!

For more details, please visit www.hcidc.org and join the event mailing list to receive updates.

ePatient Guest Blogger

We have lots of testimonials from patients and health care providers that have used health IT and electronic health records to help improve their care. Earlier this week, we posted a story from Alisa Hughley, who took part in this past summer’s Healthcare Unbound Conference. In her blog, you will see what steps she had to take to digitize her health information and what she has learned about Blue button and becoming an eHealth consumer.