What's Happening in Health IT

In This Issue

Time is running out to sign up for the 2015 ONC Annual Meeting February 2^nd and 3^rd! Over 1,000 people have already registered, and registration ends today, so don’t miss out – check out the agenda and sign up now! Meet National Coordinator Karen DeSalvo, M.D., and then learn about efforts that are already underway to collect, share and use health data. Highlights include all of the former National Coordinators and a Fireside Chat with former U.S. Senate Majority Leaders Tom Daschle (D) and William Frist, M.D. (R).

REC Progress Visualized

New updates to the Health IT Dashboard include seven new Quick Stats detailing the Health IT Regional Extension Center (REC) Program's progress helping health care providers adopt and meaningfully use electronic health records (EHRs). Check out all the new Quick Stats:

Number of Priority Primary Care Providers by EHR Adoption Milestone and month
NEW MAP! Percent of REC Enrolled Critical Access and Rural Hospitals Demonstrating Meaningful Use
NEW MAP! Percent of REC Enrolled Priority Primary Care Providers (PPCPs) Demonstrating Meaningful Use
Percent of Providers Live on an EHR and Demonstrating Meaningful Use byPractice Type and Area Type
Percent of Physicians Live on an EHR and Demonstrating Meaningful Use by Speciality
Percent of Primary Care Providers Live on an EHR and Demonstrating Meaningful Use by Credential

Check back periodically for the latest data on EHR adoption and meaningful use. These Quick Stats will be updated monthly.

Webinar: Using Health IT To Improve Hypertension

Join us January 23 for a free webinar explaining how a pair of primary care practices improved the hypertension of their patients using health IT and won Phase 1 of the EHR Innovations for Improving Hypertension Challenge. Tune in to hear how the winners did it and learn about Phase 2 of the challenge! Sign up now to attend the webinar next Friday at 2:30pm (EST).

Health IT Safety Webinar Series

Join us for the second webinar of 10 on health IT and patient safety which will be held from 1pm to 2:30pm (EST) on January 30, The webinar is titled The Role of e-Prescribing in Health IT Safety: Challenges and Solutions.

This webinar will present three perspectives on e-prescribing in ambulatory settings. The first will present research on adverse drug events and health IT. The second will look at e-prescribing workflow and technology transitions. The third will examine a program to enhance e-prescribing in a national interoperability network. Together these presentations suggest that expanded use of e-prescribing will support improved safety, workflow, and quality.

Federal Advisory Committee Schedule Week of January 19 (all times EST)

Our advisory committees will release more details closer to the meeting dates. Please check back and thanks for joining the conversation!

Tuesday
The Health IT Policy Committee (HITPC) Consumer Workgroup meets at 9am. Check back for the agenda and details.

Thursday
The HITPC HIT Strategy & Innovation Workgroup meets at noon.

Friday
The Health IT Standards Committee (HITSC) Data Provenance Task Force meets at 9am.

Then, at 1:30pm, the HITSC S&I Task Force convenes.

Meaningful Use Stage 3 Webinar

AHRQ is hosting a webinar January 28 from 12:30 to 2pm (EST) on meeting Stage 3 Meaningful Use Objectives. This presentation will outline findings from research on meaningful use of clinical decision support, care coordination and electronic health records in primary care settings. Determination of continuing medical education credit with the American Academy of Family Physicians is pending. Register now!

Open Data & Innovating for the Underserved

Calling all startups, developers, and health tech innovators! ONC and IDEA Lab at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services are hosting an event on February 12 illustrating how open Federal data can be used by innovators to create new technology solutions that could help low-income and vulnerable populations achieve better health outcomes. The in-person event takes place at 1776 DC, 1133 15th Street, NW, Washington, D.C. and runs from 4 to 6pm. Attendance is free but space is limited, so register athttp://capconcorp.com/event/onc-bootcamp/

Quality Data Model 4.1.2 Released

The Quality Data Model (QDM) describes clinical concepts in a standardized format to enable electronic clinical quality measurement. Quality Data Model specification, version 4.1.2 was released on January 14, 2015. Support for the 4.1.2 changes were made in the Measure Authoring Tool (MAT) v4.1.0.

QDM 4.1.2 contains the following changes:

Removal of the anatomical approach site attribute from all Physical Examdatatypes
Removal of the method attribute from Procedure, Intolerance datatype
Clarification of the meaning of start datetime and stop datetime in all Orderdatatypes
Clarification regarding where quantity-based temporal comparisons can and cannot be used