New This Week on HealthIT.gov

In This Issue

The past week in health IT was busy and next week is shaping up to be jam-packed as well.

Next week's federal advisory committees and workgroups activities

Next week our advisory committees are going to be busy, with the Health IT Policy Committee (HITPC) meeting Tuesday, followed by a hearing on Wednesday to discuss optimizing the ONC Certification Program and then further discussion on Thursday. Finally, on Friday, the HITPC Certification/Adoption Workgroup holds a web conferenceat 9am (EDT) followed at 11am by a meeting of the Health IT Standards Committee NwHIN Power Team at 1pm. And last – but not least – is the #HITPC’s Quality Measures Workgroup meeting at 3pm.

The links above will be updated to include agendas and meeting slides when the various committees make them available, so check again closer to the meeting date to get more details.

Webinars, meetings and more!

In observance of Nurses Week, ONC is hosting a webinar, "Ten Ways to Maximize Use of Technology: For You and Your Patients" on May 6^th from 2-3pm EDT. The featured speaker will be Patricia Sengstack, DNP, RN-BC, CPHIMS, chief nursing informatics officer, Bon Secours Health System and president, American Nursing Information Association. Technology in healthcare has become pervasive.

Nurses in every type of healthcare setting are interacting with multiple modes of health IT as they care for their patients. This can be intimidating considering the rapid pace at which advances in technology continue to evolve. Sign up for this webinar that will provide practical tips to advance your skills and provide knowledge to help you take advantage of the potential that health IT has to offer in improving care delivery.

In case you missed it, we have the slide deck from the webinar 'Exploring the Impact of Digital Technologies on Consumer Engagement and Empowerment for Communities of Color' that we recently held with the HHS Office of Minority Health.

Third REC achieves milestone

In January, the Virginia Health Information Technology Regional Extension Center(@VHITREC) met 100% of its milestone 3 targets, helping 2,462 providers meaningfully use their EHRs, beating their goal by about 200 providers! This is a hard-fought and commendable goal and the REC's ongoing work continues to help providers throughout Virginia transform their practices. A special thanks to the Virginia REC team who helpedmake this major milestone a reality including Virginia Brooks, VHIT's fearless leader, and to all the field staff who served as the "boots on the ground" to the practices themselves.

Blue Button campaign materials now available!

We have now posted new materials that consumers, employers, providers, developers, advocacy groups and others with broad social networks can use to help promote Blue Button. Blue Button is a brand or symbol empowering Americans with electronic access to their vital health information so they are able to participate more fully in their own care. Organizations may now use these materials to spread the word about Blue Button. ONC, other federal agencies and several notable private sector organizations will be participating in a coordinated Blue Button Campaign in fall 2014 to coincide with National Preparedness Month, National Health IT Week and the 2014 Consumer Health IT Summit. If you would like to be a part of this effort, please contact us at BlueButton@HHS.gov.

Download the security risk assessment tool

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Security Rule requires that covered entities conduct a risk assessment of their healthcare organization. A risk assessment helps your organization make sure it is compliant with HIPAA's administrative, physical, and technical safeguards. It also helps reveal areas where your organization’s protected health information (PHI) could be at risk. Watch the Security Risk Analysis video to learn more about the assessment process and how it benefits your organization or visit the Office for Civil Rights' official guidance. To help facilitate and encourage providers to take on this important responsibility, we and our colleagues at the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) produced a Security Risk Assessment Tool (SRA Tool) which we released in March. Earlier this week, we hosted a webinar to provide information on the SRA Tool and answer questions. The presentation is available athttp://www.healthit.gov/newsroom/past-events. Download the tool, read the user guide and help make your practice more secure.

Blogging, blogging, blogging

Our blogging team continues to crank out awesome posts that you can have delivered – free of charge – to your inbox. Scroll down here and click the 'Get Updates' button.

In the past week we had posts about how our Health IT Policy Committee (#HITPC) is convening a hearing to consider ways to optimize our EHR Certification Program, how health IT can improve population and public health and how these systems can reduce health disparities for American Indians and Alaska Natives. We also published this issue brief on how health IT can improve public health .