- HHS announces San Diego Regional Health Information Exchange and The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin) as awardees of the LEAP in Health IT funding opportunity. - Awardees projects will focus on advancing health IT interoperability to improve healthcare for patients nationwide.The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) today announced two awards under the Leading Edge Acceleration Projects in Health
Read More
ONC Awards The Sequoia Project to Serve As Recognized Coordinating Entity to Support Interoperability
Quick Glance- ONC awards The Sequoia Project a cooperative agreement for the Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement to support advancing nationwide interoperability of electronic health information- The RCE will be responsible for developing, updating, implementing, and maintaining the Common Agreement component of the Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement (TEFCA)- RCE will collaborate with ONC to designate and monitor Qualified Health Information Networks (QHIN), modify and
Read More
Kaiser Appoints First Chief Digital Officer, Teladoc’s New COO, Castlight Health CEO, Other Health IT Appointments
Kaiser Permanente has appointed Prat Vemana as its first chief digital officer for Kaiser Foundation Health Plan and Hospitals. In this newly created role, Vemana will lead the ongoing development and execution of Kaiser Permanente's digital vision and strategy, in collaboration with internal health plan, hospital, and medical group teams.
Atlantic Health System has named Dr. Sylvia Romm as Chief Innovation Officer. In her new role, Romm will be responsible for building new partner
Read More
HHS Should Be Careful Not To Go Too Far Too Fast on New EHR Rules
Senate health committee Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) on Wednesday said, “The administration should not move too far, too fast on implementing new rules on electronic health information.”Improving the access, use, and exchange of electronic health information is important to this committee,” Alexander said. “In March, the Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) issued two proposed rules to implement
Read More
$4.9M EMSA Grant Connects CA Ambulances to Statewide Patient Data
California ambulances will now be connected to the state’s nonprofit health data network, Manifest MedEx (MX), thanks to a $4.9 million grant awarded by the Emergency Medical Services Authority (EMSA) to facilitate health information exchange between emergency ambulance service providers and hospitals.Grant DetailsMX will work together with six local EMS agencies, 13 EMS providers, and 16 hospitals to cover eight counties and more than 7.6 million Californians following the Office of the
Read More
HHS Issues Public Comment for Interoperability Exchange Framework
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) today issued for public comment draft 2 of the Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement (TEFCA) that will support the full, network-to-network exchange of health information nationally. HHS also released a notice of funding opportunity to engage a non-profit, industry-based organization that will advance nationwide interoperability.Public Comment DetailsSpecifically, the documents being released for comment are: (1) a second draft of
Read More
Imprivata Integrates Biometric ID with Verato’s Patient Matching
Imprivata, a healthcare IT security company, and Verato, a provider of patient identity matching solutions, today announced an integration partnership to offer a comprehensive solution for patient identification and record matching challenges. The integration will link links Imprivata PatientSecure, a positive patient identification solution for healthcare, with Verato Universal™ MPI, a cloud-based master patient index (MPI) solution powered by Verato’s proprietary referential matching
Read More
The Kabuki Dance Of “Blocking Data” In Healthcare
The lack of data interoperability in healthcare continues to plague and haunt the entire industry. Much of the challenge falls squarely in the realm of Electronic Health Record (EHR) software, but EHR software is by no means the only category where this challenge is directly affecting patient lives. I ‒ along with countless others ‒ have written extensively about this topic. Last year I did a 5‒part series on just "interoperability" which I published on Forbes. One piece highlighted the
Read More
Meaningful Use Stage 3 Proposed Rule: 5 Takeaways for Physicians
On March 20, 2015 the stars aligned to produce four simultaneous events that will never again coincide during the life of human civilization. The first three, the vernal equinox, a total solar eclipse and a new supermoon, were brought to us by the stars themselves, and the fourth one was thrown out there by the government. The regulations for Meaningful Use Stage 3 were finally published. Meaningful use of electronic health records (EHR) was presented to us back in 2009 as part of a stimulus
Read More
Video:Mobile Device Roundtable:Safeguarding Health Information
Last week, The Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) hosted a Mobile Devices Roundtable with the public, industry, and subject matter experts to discuss how to better safeguard health information while using mobile devices. For those that were not able to attend or watch the webcast, the ONC has now made these videos available to the public. Below is all of the videos from the entire event available to watch in one place.
The ONC also invites you to provide input on mobile devices' uses
Read More