What's Happening in Health IT

In This Issue

ONC issues Report to Congress

Hot off the presses is a new Report to Congress that details ONC's findings on the extent and nature of health information blocking as determined by our detailed analysis on this issue gathered through complaints, anecdotes, empirical research, discussions with industry sources gathered over the last year. The Report also provides criteria for identifying and distinguishing health information blocking from other barriers to interoperability, and describes steps the federal government can take to deter this conduct.

National Coordinator Dr. Karen DeSalvo (@KBDeSalvo) and Jodi Daniel (@JodiDaniel), director of the ONC Office of Policy blog about information blocking which occurs when persons or entities knowingly and unreasonable interfere with the exchange or use of electronic health information. Jodi Daniel will be hosting a listening session on this report during HIMSS – Tuesday, April 14 from 5-6 pm in room W23BC. And speaking of HIMSS…

ONC at #HIMSS15

For those of you gearing up for #HIMSS15 week, we've got something for you! First up, we have a time change on the ONC Safety & Quality session; it will now take place on Wednesday, April 15 from 1pm to 2pm (all times CT). ONC staff will present or moderate at a number of other sessions including:

Monday
National Coordinator Dr. Karen DeSalvo (@KBDeSalvo) will lead a Fireside Chat on Technology & Information to Advance Better Health at 2:30pm in room S100C.

ONC’s interoperability guru invites all health IT vendors to a listening session at 1 pm in the Federal Health IT pavilion.

A presentation about the ONC Certification Criteria, Testing & Certification Program by Steve Posnack (@HealthIT_Policy), ONC's director of the Office of Standards and Technology, that begins Monday at 5pm in room W23BC.

Tuesday
At 10am, Elise Anthony, deputy director for the Office of Policy, and Michael Lipinski, the division director for our Office of Policy and Regulatory Affairs, will be presenting a detailed session on the 2015 Edition proposed rule in room S100C.

Erica Galvez, ONC Exchange and Interoperability lead will another discussion on interoperability at 1pm in the Federal Health IT pavilion with clinicians and health care providers.

Chief Privacy Officer Lucia Savage will lead a discussion on Privacy & Security: Opportunities and Challenges of Computable Privacy at 2:30pm in room S100C. Followed by an in depth listening session at 4pm in room W23BC.

Join Jodi Daniel (@JodiDaniel), director of the ONC Office of Policy, in a discussion on the recently issued new Report to Congress that details ONC's findings on the extent and nature of health information blocking. This listening session will be held from 5-6pm in room W23BC.Wednesday
Jodi Daniel, director of the Office of Policy, and Lana Moriarty, director of our office of Consumer eHealth will lead a session on Understanding Why & How to Engage Consumers at 10am in room S100C.

Jodi Daniel and Michael Lipinski will be joined by some of our colleagues from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to discuss the proposed Meaningful Use Stage 3 and 2015 Edition Certification Criteria rules at 11:30am in room S102D.

Jodi Daniel and Dr. Andrew Gettinger, acting director of the Office of Clinical Quality and Safety will provide an update on care transformation and health IT safety plan as well as a safety center update in room 190A at 1 pm.

Meanwhile at 1 pm, Dr. Jon White, Acting Deputy National Coordinator, will host a listening session in the Federal Health IT pavilion on the precision medicine initiative.

Finally, in room W23BC at 1:30 pm, ONC innovator in residence Catherine Costa will lead a discussion on the patient identity data quality maturity model.Thursday
National Coordinator Dr. DeSalvo will deliver keynote remarks to the HIMSS community on Thursday at 8:30 am in the Skyline Ballroom W375. Following her remarks, she will be joined by Andy Slavitt, Acting CMS Administrator, for a fireside chat moderated by Dana Alexander, Chair-Elect, HIMSS.

And stop by the ONC Booth where ONC staff will be holding Office Hours. For more details about all the ONC sessions, check out our #HIMSS15 page.

Speaking of Office Hours, if you have questions about electronic clinical quality measures (eCQMs), experts from the eCQI Resource Center will be available to answer your questions on:

Tuesday, April 14; 2:30pm – 3:30pm; S505B; Standards and Resource Center
Wednesday, April 15; 10am – 11am; S505B; Tools and Resource Center
Wednesday, April 15; 1pm – 2pm; S505B; Tools and Standards

And for those who aren't shipping up to Chicago, read on to see what else is on tap.

Test EHR Update

Cerner Corporation and Epic Systems have joined iPatientCare as CMS Designated Test EHR Program participants. The MU Stage 2's transition of care objective, measure #3, requires eligible professionals and eligible hospitals/critical access hospitals to either:

Conduct one or more successful electronic exchanges of a summary of care document, with a recipient who has EHR technology designed by a different EHR developer than the sender's
or
Conduct one or more successful tests with the CMS designated test EHR during the EHR reporting period via the Test EHR Program.

To learn more check out CMS's updated FAQ or peruse the additional resources available to providers and EHR developers, including the Test EHR Randomizer Page and the ONC Test EHR page.

Innovator Hangout: HIPAA 101 for Entrepreneurs

Did you know that HIPAA not only protects patient information, but also gives patients the legal right to access their own health data? Companies developing consumer-facing apps and products will play a vital role in enabling patients to retrieve their information from providers and payors, and allow them to use that information in a meaningful way. Take advantage of this unique opportunity to learn more about the HIPAA privacy rule and its impact on health IT innovation from the experts during a Google+ hangout on Wednesday April 29 from 3pm to 4pm. Lucia Savage, ONC's chief privacy officer, and Jocelyn Samuels, the director of the HHS Office for Civil Rights will be hanging out with Chas Ballew, from Aptible, so be sure to check it out!

Health IT and Patient Safety Webinar

Join us on April 23, 2015 1pm-2:30pm (EDT) for the fifth webinar of a 10-part series on health information technology (IT) and patient safety, "CPOE, CDS and Health IT Safety." This free webinar presents perspectives on computerized provider order entry (CPOE) and clinical decision support (CDS) and how these systems impact patient safety. The presenters for the webinar are David W. Bates, M.D., M.Sc., Chief Innovation Officer and Senior Vice President, Brigham and Women's Hospital and David Classen, M.D., M.S., Chief Medical Information Officer, Pascal Metrics. Please sign up now and watch for announcements for our upcoming #HealthIT and patient safety webinars!

FHA Releases Guidance Documents for Federal Agencies Use of Direct Messaging

Federal Health Architecture's (FHA) Directed Exchange Workgroup (WG) celebrated a two-year milestone on April 4th with the release of two critical guidance documents: the Certificate Issuance and Assurance in Direct Messaging white paper and the Federal Directed Exchange Trust Framework. The white paper is designed to help federal agencies identify and apply the appropriate laws, regulations and policies for certificate issuance and assurance methods for federal use of Direct messaging. The Trust Framework helps federal agencies and private organizations identify/create the appropriate attributes and policies to use for their agency to effectively, securely and consistently exchange data with other agencies and with private sector partners. To view these documents and other guidance recommendations issued by this WG, visit healthit.gov/fha.

The goal of this WG is to increase the adoption of Direct for use in the exchange of health information between federal agencies and non-federal entities/individuals.

Federal Advisory Committee Schedule Week of April 13 (all times EDT)

The ONC advisory committee schedule for the week has been somewhat abbreviated given #HIMSS15 and so the only meetings will take place next Friday, April 17.

At 11am the Health IT Standards Committee's Semantic Standards Workgroup meets. The dial-in and Web conference information is here and the agenda and meeting materials will be posted closer to the meeting date.

The Health IT Policy Committee's Interoperability and #HIE Workgroup convenes at 2:30pm and will post its agenda prior to the meeting.