New This Week on HealthIT.gov

In This Issue

For those who live for summer, the solstice is mere hours away. In the meantime, we've got #FDASIA on our minds …

FDASIA Webinar

Later today (3 pm EDT), ONC, the Food and Drug Administration and Federal Communications Commission will host a webinar to hear your feedback on the recently released draft FDA Safety and Innovation Act (FDAISA) report. You can still register for the FDASIA webinar.

Proposed FDA Guidance on Medical Device Data Systems Released

Just this morning, FDA issued proposed guidance on Medical Device Data Systems, Medical Image Storage Devices, and Medical Image Communications Devices. The proposed guidance is designed to continue to encourage innovation in health IT while focusing regulatory resources and expertise on medical devices that pose the greater risk to patients if they don't work as intended. FDA's Bakul Patel, who will be part of today’s webinar (see above), explains the proposed guidance on FDAVoice.

Federal Advisory Committee Schedule Week of June 16

Monday
The Health IT Policy Committee's (HITPC) Safety Task Force meets at 9am (all times EDT). Select this link for agenda, meeting materials, and dial-in information.

Following at noon is the Health IT Standards Committee's (HITSC) Implementation Workgroup. Follow this link for details and materials.

Then at 2pm, the HITPC's Privacy & Security Tiger Team convenes. Agenda, dial in, and slides will be posted when available.
Wednesday
The HITPC's Quality Measures Workgroup holds a meeting at 11am. When available, the meeting materials will be posted.
Thursday
The HITPC's Certification Adoption Workgroup meets at 1pm. Stay tuned for dial in, agenda, and meeting materials.

The HITSC's Nationwide Health Information Network (NwHIN) Power Teamwraps up the week at 3:30pm. The team will publish its agenda, dial in, and meeting materials when they are available.

Evaluation of the Beacon Community Program

Data Sharing to Enable Clinical Transformation at the Community Level: IT Takes a Village is one of a series of evaluations of the Beacon program authored by NORC. This brief examines the Beacon Communities' approaches to and experiences with building and strengthening their health IT infrastructures, specifically with respect to data sharing to enable clinical transformation. NORC found that despite diverse characteristics, Beacon Communities reported several common promising practices that facilitated data sharing across the local health care systems. Many Beacons also found it crucial to build in flexibility to help practices at all levels of readiness, from smaller practices with basic health IT capabilities to large hospital systems to achieve that data sharing.

Digital Privacy Notice Webinar

Providers and representatives from health plans are invited to join us for a webinar that will help explain how to install and customize the award-winning model Notices of Privacy Practices on your websites. These Model Notices were the winners of the Digital Privacy Notice Challenge that were announced at the recent Health Datapalooza. The webinar kicks off at 1pm on June 26. Please register today!

Blogging, Blogging, Blogging!

Our Chief Clinical Officer, Amy Helwig, MD, MPH, penned a blog post with her colleague from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), John Ward, MD, who heads up the viral hepatitis program at CDC about a pilot project that is using telemedicine in an effort to help better treat patients in rural and other areas who suffer from hepatitis C virus. ONC is working with the American Medical Association on the project to design clinical quality measures to help doctors use evidence-based medicine to treat the disease. Read more about the pilot program, which is up and running in Arizona and Utah.

Decision support plus patient portal equals one healthy patient. Read how Dr. Larry Garber, a Worcester, Mass. Internist, and his team identified and treated a potentially life-threatening disease using a patient portal prompt. Following evidence-based medicine, Dr. Garber explains how health IT was integral to identifying an abdominal aortic aneurysm in one of his patients.

Submit Your Comments on Patient Confidentiality

Don't forget to submit comments on the Confidentiality of Alcohol and Drug Abuse Patient Records Regulation! Substance Abuse & Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) held a public listening session last week but is accepting written comments until Wednesday, June 25, 2014, at 5 pm EDT. You may submit comments using any of the following methods:

Mail: SAMHSA, 1 Choke Cherry Road, Rockville, MD 20857, Room 5-1011
Hand Delivery or Courier: 1 Choke Cherry Road, Rockville, MD 20857, Room 5-1011, between 9 am and 5 pm, Eastern Time, Monday through Friday, except federal holidays
Email: PrivacyRegulations@SAMHSA.hhs.gov
Fax: 1-240-276-2900

Download the Voluntary Comment Template

Learn About Substance Abuse Confidentiality Regulations

Implementation Resource Repository

And, finally, a quick plug for our implementation resource repository. Download resources to help your practice implement health IT and help transform health-care delivery and then tell us what you think by rating the tools.