What's Happening in Health IT

In This Issue

• SAVE THE DATE: ONC 2016 Annual Meeting
• Join an Informational Webinar to Learn about ONC’s New Consumer and Provider App Challenges
• New Program to Spur Adoption of the S&I Framework/HL7 US Realm Laboratory Implementation Guides
• Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) Announces Special Emphasis on Funding Health IT Safety Research
• Presentations Now Available from Health IT Conference
• Webinar Slides Now Available - ONC Health IT Certification Program: Enhanced Oversight and Accountability Proposed Rule
• Federal Advisory Committee Schedule Mar. 28 – Apr. 1

SAVE THE DATE: ONC 2016 Annual Meeting

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC) is pleased to announce its sixth Annual Meeting will be held May 31 – June 2, 2016, at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C. The Annual Meeting is an opportunity for a wide array of public and private sector partners to discuss ways to leverage health IT to achieve better care, smarter spending, and healthier people. 

NEW THIS YEAR: We have extended the Annual Meeting to three days this year in order to devote an entire day of focus to enabling consumers to become partners in their health via health care through access to their health information and technology. More details to follow.

Join an Informational Webinar to Learn about ONC’s New Consumer and Provider App Challenges

On Thursday, March 31 at 3:00 p.m. ET. ONC will hold an informational webinar discussing theConsumer Health Data Aggregator Challenge and Provider User-Experience (UX) Challenge. As part of the Connecting and Accelerating a FHIR App Ecosystem initiative, the former challenge focuses on aggregating health information for consumers, with the latter focusing on improving providers’ user experience with health IT. The challenges seek to leverage the new Health Level 7 – Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR®) standard and the use of open, standardized application programming interfaces (APIs). Each challenge has a total prize purse of $175,000. Register for the webinar today!

New Program to Spur Adoption of the S&I Framework/HL7 US Realm Laboratory Implementation Guides

The Lab US Realm Early Adopters Program is an opportunity for organizations to engage in early adoption activities for the suite of Implementation Guides developed within the S&I Framework workgroups in collaboration with HL7.  These specifications have been harmonized to provide implementation guidance that covers flow of key data in the laboratory and EHR data exchange scenarios include electronic Directory of Services (eDOS), a Laboratory Order Interface (LOI), a Laboratory Results Interface (LRI) and a Value Set Companion Guide.

The purpose of these pilots is to:

• Encourage market adoption of the Lab US Realm Implementation Guides
• Encourage production support and implementations in LIS and EHR systems
• Build on the constrained HL7 V2 messages in MU, now harmonized for US Realm

ONC is currently accepting proposals for pilot projects to test Labs Initiative Standards.  There will be a webinar to provide more information on April 7, 2016 from 4:00 p.m. - 5 p.m. ET.

Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) Announces Special Emphasis on Funding Health IT Safety Research

AHRQ is seeking grant proposals to generate new knowledge on health IT safety. AHRQ is interested in funding applications to conduct  research on safe health IT practices specifically related to the design, implementation, usability, and safe use of health IT by all users, including nurses, physicians, patients, and caregivers.

Large (R01/R18), medium, and small projects will be considered. R01 and R18 projects should include personnel from health IT vendors and health care delivery organizations in the project personnel. Patient Safety Organization involvement in R01 projects is strongly encouraged, as is industry partnership. Standard due dates for competing applications apply. More information on theSpecial Emphasis Notice is available online.

Presentations Now Available from Health IT Conference

Presentations are now available from the ONC co-sponsored conference held in September entitled "Accessibility and Usability in Health Information Technology: A Research & Action Conference to Empower People with Disabilities, Older Adults, and Caregivers.” The Interagency Committee on Disability Research conference focused on advancing the priority of accessibility in health information technology (IT) systems and tools from a compliance-oriented approach toward one that is user-driven.

Over 35 thought leaders representing users, providers, health IT research and development (R&D), and federal leadership shared their perspectives of current issues and potential levers of change to move the agenda for accessible and usable health IT forward.

Webinar Slides Now Available - ONC Health IT Certification Program: Enhanced Oversight and Accountability Proposed Rule

ONC hosted a webinar on the proposed rule on March 22.  Slides from the webinar are now available.

ONC is conducting another webinar on the proposed rule on April 21.  Please register for thewebinar now.

Federal Advisory Committee Schedule Mar. 28 – Apr. 1

Wednesday, March 30
1:00 p.m to 2:30 p.m. ET. The Standards: Precision Medicine Task Force Meets. Learn more:
http://ow.ly/100UwV