What's New in Health IT In This Issue Read the Connect for Care blog post Final 2016 Interoperability Standards Advisory Release Winner of EHR Innovations for Improving Hypertension Challenge New Resources on HIE Measurement and Patient Matching Posted State Health IT Policy Levers Compendium Released Comment Period for Updated Test Procedures Ends Dec. 31 Test Tools Remain Open for Public Comment Federal Advisory Committee Schedule Dec. 22 – Dec. 31 Happy Holidays! Still lots going on in the world of Health IT, so take a moment to peruse the latest news from ONC and our Federal partners and we hope you have a happy and safe holiday! Read the Connect for Care blog post ICYMI, National Coordinator Karen DeSalvo, M.D., M.P.H., M.Sc., earlier this month spoke about the not-to-distant future where “we have a learning, connected health care system that leverages technology just as well and just as easily as the latest apps we all have on our phones for hailing a ride or paying our bills.” Dr. DeSalvo talked about a three-pronged approach where stakeholders commit to: Expanding consumer access, Stopping Information blocking and Implementing Federally recognized standards. Dr. DeSalvo wrote about “a future where, with ONC’s support, we see development of FHIR-basedhealth apps that focus on putting the person and the care experience front and center—and where something like a prototype 'app store' exists as a one-stop shop for your mobile health IT needs.”Read the blog post and be sure to leave a comment! Final 2016 Interoperability Standards Advisory Release ONC today released the Final 2016 Interoperability Standards Advisory (ISA) after refining the Draft 2016 ISA published earlier this year. The 2016 ISA, a key milestone of the Interoperability Roadmap, incorporates feedback received during public comment, as well as recommendations from the Health IT Standards Committee. Its purpose is to identify the “best available” interoperability standards and implementation specifications for industry use to fulfill specific clinical health IT interoperability needs. Starting next year, ONC will begin the public process to create the 2017 ISA in order to have a draft ready by next fall. Read the new blog post about the Final 2016 Interoperability Standards Advisory. Winner of EHR Innovations for Improving Hypertension Challenge ONC is pleased to announce the winner of the EHR Innovations for Improving Hypertension Challenge, Green Spring Internal Medicine! Run in conjunction with the Million Hearts Initiative®, the two-phase challenge sought to uncover the clinical practices that have used clinical decision support to implement the most successful, evidence-based blood pressure treatment protocols and to spur implementation of these tools. ONC runs challenges to promote innovation in health care while aligning with overarching initiatives like Million Hearts. Green Spring Internal Medicine was one of two co-winners of Phase 1 of the challenge, along with Vibrant Health Family Clinics. The tools developed can be useful for population health management registries and other follow-up IT tools based on Physician Quality Reporting System requirements. New Resources on HIE Measurement and Patient Matching Posted Check out the following new Health Information Exchange resources on HealthIT.gov: Measuring Nationwide Progress: Interoperability and Exchange of Health Information Developing and Testing a Data Management Model and Maturity Scale Tailored to Improving Patient Matching Accuracy Guidelines for Pilot Testing of Data Management Maturity Model for Individual Data Matching As your practice, hospital or clinic moves down the road toward interoperability and Health Information Exchange, we hope these new tools can be a resource. Please check them out! State Health IT Policy Levers Compendium Released If you missed it last week, ONC released a State Health IT Policy Levers Compendium to help you understand how other states are using waivers, Medicaid Health Home State Plan Amendments and other state-level policy levers to advance health IT and interoperability goals. Developed by U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC) in coordination with states, this tool is intended to support state efforts of advancing interoperability and can also be used in service of delivery system reform providing better care, smarter spending, and healthier people. Download the Compendium Comment Period for Updated Test Procedures Ends Dec. 31 Just a gentle reminder that – while public comments on the Draft 2015 Edition Test Procedures (TPs) ended on November 30 – there is a 30-day public comment period for the 2 remaining Draft TPs as well as a few updated ones ending on December 31, 2015. Those TPs are as follows: §170.315 (g)(1) Automated Numerator Recording (new) § 170.315 (g)(2) Automated Measure Calculation (new) § 170.315 (b)(3) Electronic Prescribing (updated) § 170.315 (h)(1) Direct Project (updated) § 170.315 (h)(2) Direct Project, Edge Protocol, and XDR/XDM (updated) For more details, take a look at the website. Test Tools Remain Open for Public Comment Public comment on the Test Tools for conformance testing of Health IT Modules related to the 2015 Edition ONC certification criteria for electronic prescribing, immunization messaging, syndromic surveillance, and reportable laboratory results remains open. The complementary test process documents, developed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), describe the testing actions for using these tools and remain available for a 30-day public comment period ending January 1, 2016. Please review the NIST Normative Test Process Documents for the following tools and provide all feedback to NTPD_comments@nist.gov. All test tools can be found here. Electronic Prescribing Immunization Messaging Syndromic Surveillance Messaging Electronic Laboratory Reporting (ELR) Federal Advisory Committee Schedule Dec. 22 – Dec. 31 There are no Federal Advisory Committee meeting scheduled for this week, however the Certified Technology Comparison Task Force is scheduled to meet next week (Wednesday, Dec. 30) at 9:30 a.m. Find more details about the meeting here: http://bit.ly/1P6SOep