New This Week on HealthIT.gov

In This Issue

Friday is here and there’s lots to talk about. We want to start with a friendly reminder that our Advisory Committee meeting schedules, agendas and power point slides are all posted on our FACA website. If you are interested in helping to shape our policies going forward, please take a look at the upcoming meetings (it's accessible through the new green button at www.healthit.gov).

Park Rx

With child obesity rates in the Unites States at all time highs, the National Park Service recently launched a program to get kids outside with the help of doctors. And some of them are using electronic health records. Read more about this unique program called Park Rx in the HealthIT Buzz blog.

CHPL Upgrades

The Certified Health IT Product List (aka the CHPL) just got an upgrade. Read about the new ways you can search the webpage for Clinical Quality Measures or view Certification Test Results in a new blog post. The post includes links to other ONC resources vendors and providers may find useful.

Consumer Engagement with Communities of Color

Sign up for an upcoming webinar to commemorate Minority Health Month entitled: "Exploring the Impact of Health IT on Consumer Engagement and Empowerment for Communities of Color"

The webinar will be held on Thursday, April 24 and runs from 2 – 3:30 pm (EDT).

The webinar will feature National Coordinator Karen B. DeSalvo, M.D., M.P.H., M.Sc., Nadine Gracia, M.D., M.S.C.Es, HHS' deputy assistant secretary for Minority Health and director, Office of Minority Health, , Erin Mackay, associate director of Health IT at the National Partnership for Women and Families, Shane Hickey, director of IT at the National Association of Community Health Centers, Silas Buchanan, co-founder and CEO at the Institute for eHealth Equity and Luis Belen, CEO at the National Health IT Collaborative for the Underserved. This webinar will investigate the importance of addressing health equity and health disparities that persist in our health care system. Health IT offers significant opportunities to improve health care access and quality in a way that can promote improved health outcomes and equity for all.

New Challenge announced

Earlier this week the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released Medicare Fee-for-Service Provider Utilization and Payment Data. These data have great potential to further the nation's understanding of health care spending and physician practice patterns. The new Code-a-Palooza Challenge is asking developers to create tools that use the new CMS data to help consumers improve their health care decision-making. Up to ten finalists will be asked to demonstrate their tools live at Health Datapalooza on June 2, with the winner announced at the end of the conference. Check it out and start developing!