New This Week on HealthIT.gov

New This Week on HealthIT.gov

Happy "Blue Button" New Year
We at ONC want to wish everyone a Happy and Healthy New Year! Medicare beneficiaries and those who have parents or elderly relatives who have Medicare should know that they can now download their electronic health record (EHR) by using the Medicare Blue Button. This gives them access to their health data during the holidays and other times when they may be traveling far from home (and their primary care doctor's office) and need access to medication — or other important — information.

After dinner and before the ball drops, learn more about the benefits of Blue Button at HealthIT.gov http://www.healthit.gov/providers-professionals/faqs/what-blue-button.  

New This Week on HealthIT.gov
Read about new perspectives that demonstrate the clinical importance of Meaningful Use Stage 1.

Do you want to learn whether EHRs can improve patient outcomes? Read about the clinical perspective for each core and menu measure of Meaningful Use Stage 1. For more data and information, visit the EHR implementation lifecycle steps.

Beacon Factsheets
All 17 Beacon communities detail their approach and progress to date in easy to use fact sheets, now posted on HealthIT.gov at www.healthit.gov/policy-researchers-implementers/beacon-community-program.

Patient Safety
The new Health IT Patient Safety Action and Surveillance Plan and the steps underway to improve patient safety was released last week. In the announcement of the plan, National Coordinator Dr. Farzad Mostashari called on developers to take "concrete steps to support patient safety and event reporting."

We want your comments! Learning more about patient safety, and tell us what you think by reading the report at: www.healthit.gov/policy-researchers-implementers/health-it-and-patient-safety.  All public comments must be submitted by February 4, 2013, 11:59 pm EST to ONC.Policy@hhs.gov.

2012 ONC Annual Meeting"A Meaningful Foundation for the Future of Health Care" included many stimulating and informative presentations and sessions. View all the highlights from the 2012 ONC Annual Meeting at our Flickr photostream at: www.flickr.com/photos/healthit/.