New This Week on HealthIT.gov

In This Issue

• Minority Health and Health IT
• Security Risk Assessment Tool Webinar
• Health IT Success Stories & Resources
• Code-A-Palooza Challenge
• Advisory Committee Schedule

As part of Minority Health Month, ONC is showcasing this week how health IT can help even the playing field for those experiencing disparities in care. Read on to learn about upcoming meetings and webinars.

Minority Health and Health IT

A pair of Morehouse School of Medicine professors – who also work with the Georgia Health IT Regional Extension Center (GA-HITECH) – discuss the benefits increased interoperability and portability of health data will have for communities that historically experience disparities in care. The blog post also highlights the successes of GA-HITECH to help better coordinate care.

In the same vein, our own Larry Jessup and Nickol Todd have taken a deep dive into some of the ways health IT and electronic health records help address some of the disproportionate health outcomes experienced by American Indians and Alaska Natives. Read their new Buzz blog post and learn about how the National Indian Health Board Regional Extension Center is working to tackle this problem with the help of Indian Health Service providers and other tribal hospitals and clinics across the U.S.

Finally, ONC’s Dr. Karen DeSalvo and HHS Deputy Assistant Secretary for Minority Health Dr. J. Nadine Gracia co-hosted a webinar Thursday on these topics and more. We plan to post the audio and slides of the event on our website soon, so stay tuned.

Security Risk Assessment Tool Webinar

To learn more about our new Security Risk Assessment Tool, tune into the ONC-sponsored webinar on Tuesday, April 29 to have your answered. Sign up for the webinar, which kicks off at 2pm (EDT).

Health IT Success Stories & Resources

• Find out how Nurse Bolton Helps Her Rural Clinic Achieve Meaningful Use and Improve Health Care Quality.
• Learn about Nurse Erin Stark’s unique approach to implement Health IT in a critical access hospital.

Health IT Implementation Resources for Critical Access Hospitals. Download them, share them, rate them.

Code-A-Palooza Challenge

Today is the deadline to submit a proposal to the Code-a-Palooza Challenge. The Challenge, sponsored by ONC and the Health Data Consortium, asks developers to create interactive data visualization tools that will allow consumers to use the newly-released Medicare data to make decisions about their health care, especially when faced with potentially expensive procedures.

Advisory Committee Schedule

The Health IT Policy Committee’s (#HITPC) Certification/Adoption Workgroup meets Monday at 11 am (EDT) and is followed by the Privacy & Security Tiger Team, which meets at 2pm. Then, next Thursday, May 1, the Certification/Adoption Workgroup will meet again (at Noon EDT) followed on Friday by the Health IT Policy Committee’s (#HITPC) CA HIT Workforce Subgroup, which meets at 1pm (EDT). Check these links periodically because we update them with agendas and online webinar information when they become available so you can follow along if you’re on the road or at home.