New This Week on HealthIT.gov

In This Issue

It's going to be another busy year for ONC and health IT. We look forward to working with you all as we continue to make progress toward improving health and health care through the use of health IT.

ONC Annual Meeting deadline

January 6 – (that's Monday) – is the last day to reserve your hotel rooms at a discounted rate to attend ONC's Annual Meeting to be held Jan. 23–24 at the Washington Hilton. For more information on how to register and reserve your room for the ONC Annual Meeting, "Transforming Healthcare One Connection at a Time," please visit:http://www.healthit.gov/oncmeeting.

Come interact with ONC leaders, including our new National Coordinator for Health IT, Dr. Karen DeSalvo. Attendees will also have an opportunity to hear from industry experts on various health IT-related matters including, patient engagement, privacy and security, interoperability, safety, and much more!

Quality Data Model update

Our Standards and Certification pros published a new version of the Quality Data Modelto help clearly represent all the information used for clinical guidelines, quality measures and clinical decision support. These models are key for all the stakeholders involved in electronic quality measurement and reporting. Download or peruse the QDMs when you get a chance.

Patient-generated health data

Patient-generated health data (PGHD) can help physicians gather more information to assist in diagnosis and treatment. PGHD are"health-related data created, recorded, gathered or inferred by or from patients, family personal caregivers or designees to help address a health concern," writes Mary Jo Deering, formerly of ONC's Office of Policy and Planning in a recent blog post. "These data could be an observation, a test result, a device finding, a confirmation or a change/correction/addition of data in the patient’s existing health record," Deering writes. Read the entire blog post and weigh in on our website!

Patient engagement

What a difference a year makes. Going from a relatively unknown concept, in 2013, patient engagement via health IT and specifically Blue Button grew so much in resonance that it was even championed by former President Bill Clinton on-stage at HIMSS last Spring. Thought leaders are using "Blue Button" to denote not only electronic access by patients to their health data, but also the greater movement toward patient engagement and empowerment that it enables. For a more robust read on Blue Button and consumer eHealth activities as well as plans for 2014, please select here!

Rural resources

Looking for guidance on Health IT in Rural settings? Look no further with the 6 steps forHow to Implement EHRs for Critical Access Hospitals and Small Rural Hospitals.

The six steps outlined provide information for how to complete each step in the EHR Implementation process along with relevant resources and tools. Select each step to get detailed information from start to finish for an EHR implementation:

Step 1: Assess Your Organization Readiness

Step 2: Plan Your Approach

Step 3: Select or Upgrade to Certified EHR

Step 4: Conduct Training & Implement an EHR System

Step 5: Achieve Meaningful Use

Step 6: Continue Quality Improvement