What's Happening in Health IT

In This Issue

ONC Annual Meeting Update

Don't forget that the 2015 ONC Annual Meeting will be held February 2 -3 and we hope the single-digit weather we are currently experiencing here in Washington will be replaced by balmy temperatures more fitting of our sleepy Southern town! The updated agenda is out and we're going to kick it off with a welcome by National Coordinator for Health IT Karen DeSalvo, M.D., and follow that with a series of sessions explaining what it means to collect, share and use health information. We will gather together all of the former National Coordinators, discuss the Interoperability Roadmap and host a Fireside Chat with former U.S. Senate majority leaders Tom Daschle (D) and William Frist, M.D. (R). There is so much more going on so check out the schedule and sign up to attend now!

Blue Button Toolkit Facelift

If you haven't taken a look at the Blue Button Toolkit lately, you should. As we continue the march forward to enable more consumers with online access to their health information, we want to make sure the tools we create are useful, easy to follow and does help those who still need help with implementation and communication of patient engagement technology. With that in mind, the latest resource we’ve launched is the Blue Button Toolkit. You can read more about the toolkit or check out the Blue Button Toolkit's face lift... same great content, with a new look and feel. Start building tools today to empower consumers to view, check, use and share their electronic health data!

Federal Advisory Committee Schedule Week of Jan.12 (all times EST)

Fasten your seat belt as our advisory committees get back in full swing with seven meetings next week! The FACAs will post agendas and meeting materials prior to the meeting, but for now, please follow the hyper links below for dial-in information.

Monday
The Health IT Standards Committee (HITSC) Transport & Security Standards Workgroupmeets at noon.

The Health IT Policy Committee (HITPC) Privacy & Security workgroup convenes at 2pm.

Tuesday
The HITPC convenes a virtual meeting that begins at 9:30am.

Wednesday
The HITPC HIT Implementation, Usability & Safety Workgroup meets at 3pm.

Thursday
The HITSC Implementation, Certification & Testing Workgroup meets at 9am!

The HITSC Content Standards Workgroup meets at 11am.

Friday
The HITSC Data Provenance Task Force closes the week with a 3pm meeting.

HEART Working Group Launch

We invite you to join the first meeting of the Health Relationship Trust (HEART) Working Group (WG) on January 12. The HEART WG is a collaboration of the MIT – KIT Consortium and the Open ID Foundation. The HEART WG will be looking at ways to harmonize and develop a set of privacy and security specifications that will help an individual control the authorization of access to RESTful health-related data sharing APIs and facilitate the development of interoperable implementations of these specifications.

ONC's Office of Standards and Technology is supporting this effort and welcomes and encourages the active participation of technical and policy subject matter experts from across the Health IT community. The initial work will focus on identifying/scoping/framing relevant use cases rather than delving into the technical details.

You can review the Project Charter for more detailed information about the HEART WG.Additional Information about joining and registering for the mail list can be found online. Anyone can join the mailing list as a read-only recipient and attend the meetings.

Health IT Safety Webinar Series

The second webinar of 10 on health IT and patient safety will be held from 1pm to 2:30pm (EST) on January 30. This webinar will present recent research on the role of health IT in ambulatory medication prescribing from different perspectives.

If you missed it, the first presentation discussed adverse drug events and medication errors and the potential to mitigate them using health IT. The third presentation will briefly examine a program to enhance e-prescribing in a large-scale, national interoperability network. Together, these presentations suggest that expanded use of e-prescribing will continue to support improved safety, efficient workflow, and quality.

Medicare Quality Reporting How-To Webinar

Tune in Tuesday at 1:30pm – 3pm (EST) for a how-to webinar that answers all your questions about the 2014 submission process for the Electronic Health Record (EHR) Incentive Program, the Physician Quality Reporting System (PQRS) and the Value-Based Payment Modifier. The webinar, hosted by CMS, will provide information for eligible professionals (EPs) and group practices submitting 2014 data, guidance on how EPs and PQRS group practices can earn the 2014 PQRS incentive and tips on how to avoid the 2016 negative PQRS payment adjustment. A question and answer session will follow the presentation. See the call detail page for more information.

The Digital Consumer

Learn how Donna Cryer (@DCPatient) — a liver transplant survivor — survives and thrives using health IT despite 16 hospital admissions and discharges. A Massachusetts native, Cryer moved to Washington, D.C. and is managing her care team and using patient-generated health data to improve her own care. Read more of Donna's story!