What's Happening in Health IT

In This Issue

While you're gearing up for Turkey Day, we wanted to remind you to take advantage of the2015 Insurance Marketplace Open Enrollment Period and share the details with loved ones (or in-laws) who may be in the market for a new health plan. HHS Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell wrote about it recently, so take a second to read her post!

Register Today for the ONC Annual Meeting

ONC's 2015 Annual Meeting will be held Feb. 2-3, 2015, at the Washington Hilton in Washington, DC. The two-day meeting will gather over 1,200 health IT fans, partners and stakeholders for two days of plenaries and breakout sessions, including an exciting panel of ONC's former National Coordinators. Space is limited, so please register as soon as possible. We look forward to seeing you in Washington! Register now and keep checking the Annual Meeting page for updates!

USDA Funds Rural Development Projects

Yesterday the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced more than $20 million in rural development distance learning and telemedicine grants. Sixty-five of those grants have been awarded to 31 health care related projects across the nation. Read our own Leila Samy’s blog post about these telehealth investments.

Person at the Center Webcast

Last month, ONC and the Administration for Community Living convened a meeting to discuss ways to put the Person at the Center of their care by improving communication and collaboration among community-based service organizations and health care partners. We discussed how this can be done through the development of person-centered plans enabled by health IT. The webcast, transcript, and materials of the meeting are now available so check it out!

Identity Management Hangout

Please save the date to join our next Innovation Engagement Google Hangout on Thursday December 18 at 2pm EST, featuring Jeremy Grant from the National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace (NSTIC), and Eve Maler from ForgeRock. We'll discuss the federal strategy for creating a vibrant "identity ecosystem" to maintain greater security and privacy for consumers, the recent White House Executive Order mandating multi-factor authentication and other protections for consumer transactions, and how health IT startups can get involved in these efforts. If you are on Google + check out the details and join the hangout! Read up on NSTIC's work when you get a minute.

Federal Advisory Committee Schedule Week of Nov. 24

MondayThe Health IT Standards Committee's Content Standards Workgroup convenes a meeting at 11am EST. The agenda and meeting materials should be posted prior to the meeting on HealthIT.gov!
In the afternoon, the Health IT Policy Committee's Privacy & Security Workgroup meets at 2pm EST. The workgroup will post the agenda and meeting materials on its webpage prior to the meeting.

Learn more about Stage 2 Summary of Care requirements

ICYMI, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has posted an updated FAQ to help eligible professionals meet Measure #2 of the Summary of Care objective in Meaningful Use Stage 2. Eligible providers have the option of reporting the Summary of Care menu objective in Stage 1, but are required to meet the core objective in Stage 2.

AHRQ's HIE Evaluation Guide

Our partners at the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality updated their "Guide to Evaluating Health Information Exchange Projects" to help those involved in health information exchange (HIE) projects create an evaluation plan to evaluate an HIE project. An HIE project evaluation can provide an assessment of the HIE project's impact on health care, guide data exchange processes, point to barriers or unanticipated consequences of implementing an HIE project and much more! Electronic exchange of information is one of the core objectives of meaningful use so take a minute to peruse the new guide!