What's Happening in Health IT

In This Issue

Good day! A quick reminder that today is the deadline to submit nominations for our Health Information Technology Standards Committee (#HITSC). Make sure you get your submissions in before the end of the day! (Remember that most of the nation changes to Daylight Saving Time at 2am Saturday, so all times after today are EDT.)

We also want to encourage everybody to check out the draft Nationwide Interoperability Roadmap and 2015 Standards Advisory. Comments for the Interoperability Roadmap will be accepted until April 3 and for the Standards Advisory until May 1.

Interoperability Roadmap Feedback Wanted from Innovators

Speaking of the Roadmap and Standards Advisory, we released the first draft of "Connecting Health and Care for the Nation: A Shared Nationwide Interoperability Roadmap Draft Version 1.0" on Jan. 30 and we're looking for feedback and comments from everyone, including the health innovation community! Join us on March 12 at 3:30pm (EDT) as we hear from Erica Galvez, ONC's Interoperability and Exchange Portfolio Manager, and Morgan Reed, Executive Director of ACT: The App Association, about how the proposed Roadmap can help to achieve an interoperable learning health system through health information exchange, how this will impact and support a vibrant ecosystem for health IT innovation, and why the startup and developer community should get involved. Check out the infographic to see where we are and where we are going!

New Features on The #Bluebutton Connector

ONC's consumer team continues to evolve the Blue Button Connector website which serves as a navigation tool to help consumers locate where and who are providing online access to health records. The website recently had a major update – it now offers a database listing all successfully attested MU Stage 2 providers. Consumers can now search not just for clinics, insurers, pharmacies, labs and more offering online access but also individual providers by state. Check it out and let the team know what you think. Or, if you have other suggestions on how to make the website better e-mail us at: bluebutton@hhs.gov. Thanks!

Federal Advisory Committee Schedule Week of March 9 (all times EDT)

Monday Starting at 10:00am, the Health IT Standards Committee's (#HITSC) Semantics Standards Workgroup meets. Check back for the full agenda and meeting materials, which should be posted prior to the meeting.Tuesday Starting at 9:30am, the Health IT Policy Committee (HITPC) convenes. The committee will post its agenda and meeting materials next week so stay tuned.Wednesday At 12:30pm, the HITPC Consumer Workgroup will meet. Watch for more details about the meeting to be posted early next week.

Then, at 3pm, the HITSC Transport & Security Standards Workgroup meets. Watch for more details to be posted next week.Thursday The HITSC Architecture, Services and APIs Workgroup meets at 2pm. Dial in information has been posted and more details will follow.Friday At noon on Friday the HITSC Implementation, Certification and Testing Workgroup meets. Check back for the agenda and meeting materials late next week.

Our advisory committees wrap another busy week at 2pm, when the HITSC S&I Task Forcemeets. The Task Force will post its agenda closer to the meeting date so check back later.

Objective Grant Reviewers Sought for Interoperability FOAs

ONC is a looking for Objective Reviewers for a trio of new grants we issued last month. The new funding opportunity announcements (FOAs) – applications are due April 3 – and they include:

The application deadline for all three FOAs is April 6, 2015 and we are looking for Objective Reviewers to help us in the selection process that will begin later in April (after all the submissions are received). We encourage you to submit your interest to participate as an Objective Reviewer to ONC_ObjectiveReview@hhs.gov by March 20, 2015.

We encourage you to visit the funding opportunity page on HealthIt.gov and the ONC funding opportunity announcements on Grants.gov.

Health IT Safety Webinar

On Thursday March 19 please join us for the fourth in a series of webinars on health information technology and patient safety, Patient Safety Organizations (PSOs) and health IT safety. This webinar presents perspectives on PSOs that work to convene stakeholders and promote activities in support of health IT safety and quality. Presenters are Peggy Binzer J.D., executive director, Alliance for Quality Improvement and Patient Safety, Ronni Solomon, J.D., executive vice president and general counsel at ECRI Institute, and Drew Ladner M.A. M.B.A., president & CEO of PSO Pascal Metrics. Register now!

FCC/FDA Wireless Medical Test Beds Workshop

On Tuesday, March 31, 2015, the Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) Connect2HealthFCC Task Force and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will host a public workshop on the role of wireless medical test beds and their influence on the development of converged medical technology for clinical and non-clinical settings. The free workshop will take place at FCC headquarters in Washington, DC from 9am to 4:30pm.

Registration is strongly encouraged. To register and get on the e-mail list for the event, please e-mail testbeds@fcc.gov with "Registration" in the subject line and provide your name, organization affiliation and contact information. A free webcast of the live event, with open captioning, will be available at FCC.gov/live. For more information, visithttp://www.fcc.gov/health.