What's New in Health IT

In This Issue

• Read the Final 2016 Interoperability Standards Advisory
• State Health IT Policy Levers Compendium Released
• Test Tools Open for Public Comment Until Jan. 1
• Federal Advisory Committee Schedule Dec. 29 – Jan.5

We hope you had a happy holiday. Please take a look at what’s new in health IT this week and have a Happy New Year!

Read the Final 2016 Interoperability Standards Advisory

ICYMI, ONC last week published the Final 2016 Interoperability Standards Advisory (ISA) after refining the Draft 2016 ISA 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 theFinal 2016 Interoperability Standards Advisory.

State Health IT Policy Levers Compendium Released

We also released our new 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 in coordination with states, the tool is intended to support state efforts to advance interoperability and can also be used to further delivery system reform efforts by providing better care, smarter spending, and healthier people.

Test Tools Open for Public Comment Until Jan. 1

Just a few days left to provide 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. 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. 29 – Jan.5

There are no Federal Advisory Committee meetings scheduled this week. The next meeting will be convened (virtual only) January 7 at 10:00 a.m. by the new Certified Technology Comparison Task Force. The details are here: http://bit.ly/1PsZYtz