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Reports & Data

Reports

Program and Policy Memos

Glide Path from HITSP C83 to C-CDA: Informed decision making for health information stakeholders [PDF - 1.31 MB]

The purpose of this document is to provide an intuitive summary of the history and current state of standards and specifications for clinical document exchange in healthcare. This paper also addresses the implications that new Stage 2 Meaningful Use (MU) standards will have on prior work efforts, and in particular, the work of Beacon Communities.

Electronic Health Record Adoption and Utilization: 2012 Highlights and Accomplishments [PDF - 452 KB]

Federal efforts toward ensuring that all Americans benefit from electronic health record (EHR) technology were expanded and supported through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) funds. These statistics and program highlights offer insight into the adoption and use of health IT and showcase federal programs that are working to continue this forward momentum.

Innovations in Games: Better Health and Healthcare Report [PDF - 1MB]

On February 1, 2012, the White House Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy hosted a group of leading game designers, researchers, and government officials to explore the potential for games to improve health and health care. That discussion focused on three areas:

  • Understanding the current landscape of games and health;
  • Identifying areas where game dynamics and health needs could intersect to improve health outcomes in the future;
  • Identifying areas where the federal government could play a role in promoting innovations in health games.

This report summarizes the key discussion points from the day.

Behavioral Health Roundtable: Summary Report of Findings [PDF - 387 KB]

As part of its mission, ONC aims to coordinate the adoption and use of health IT to support broader objectives of integrating behavioral health and primary care. This roundtable was an important first step in developing a behavioral health IT strategy in support of this mission. ONC worked with participants during the roundtable to identify priority areas for using health IT to achieve better integration, and to discuss options for addressing these areas.

Long-Term and Post-Acute Care (LTPAC) Roundatable Summary Report of Findings [PDF - 367 KB]

This report summarizes key findings from the Long-Term and Post-Acute Care (LTPAC) roundtable discussion and outlines options based on the discussion for ONC’s Federal Advisory Committees members—the HIT Policy and HIT Standards Committees—to consider when developing recommendations for additional EHR Certification Criteria (EHR CC) and additional Stage 3 MU requirements and measures.

Building Better Consumer eHealth: Summary Report of Consumer eHealth Unintended Consequences Work Group [PDF - 1018 KB]

Based on empirical evidence and the research literature on consumer eHealth, a workgroup of ONC’s expert panel on Unintended Consequences of Health IT and Health Information Exchange has categorized potential unintended consequences associated with consumer eHealth and offered “strategies for success” and “questions for further research” to advance consumer eHealth. The resulting report summarizes the literature on the substantial benefits of consumer eHealth as context for understanding the inevitable, even if not always expected, challenges that arise with potentially powerful new health IT targeted at empowering and engaging patients and their caregivers. This report is recommended to everyone committed to building better consumer eHealth.

Strengthening Health Information Exchange: Final Report of HIE Unintended Consequences Work Group [PDF - 772 KB]

This white paper was commissioned by ONC to provide input to our thinking and to improve stakeholder understanding and awareness about the potential unintended consequences of HIE. Based on empirical evidence, a health information exchange literature review, and their own experience, an expert panel as part of ONC’s Unintended Consequences of Health IT contract identified seven categories of potential unintended consequences associated with health information exchange and suggested mitigating strategies to strengthen health information exchange. ONC will consider the expertise captured in the report and will evaluate any recommended next steps in light of existing efforts and budget.

Global Evaluation Reports

These summaries support the global assessment by synthesizing in one place on selected statistics and activity reports relating to implementation of HITECH. It is developed quarterly and reflects information made available from January 2011 onwards. The list of activities included in these reports are not meant to be exhaustive but to reflect a subset of reports and activities captured by reports on the ONC or CMS web site.

Reports from Evaluation of the State HIE Program

The State HIE Cooperative Agreement Program funds states’ efforts to rapidly build capacity for exchanging health information across the health care system both within and across states. Awardees are responsible for increasing connectivity and enabling patient-centric information flow to improve the quality and efficiency of care. ONC funded NORC at the University of Chicago to conduct a multi-year program evaluation. These research reports and case studies focus on understanding the implementation of the program and emerging approaches for enabling HIE. 

State HIE Reports

Improving Transitions of Care in LTPAC: An Update from the Theme 2 Challenge Grant Awardees [PDF - 1.7 MB]

In February, 2011, ONC awarded ten Challenge Grants intended to encourage breakthrough innovations for HIE that can be leveraged widely to support nationwide health information exchange and interoperability. Four of those awards went to Colorado, Maryland, Massachusetts, and Oklahoma to develop solution and best practices to improve long-term and post-acute care (LTPAC) transitions. This mid-point check-in identifies the common strategies and approaches the grantees have leverage to improve transitions of care to and from LTPAC providers including: common processes and appropriate connection points for clinical information transfer between hospitals and LTPAC providers; recommendations for hospital and LTPAC provider data needs; strategies to promote the use of standards based technology to create, transmit and view clinical documents of relevance to LTPAC and approaches to engage LTPAC providers where they are today across the health IT adoption spectrum (from high adoption to no adoption).

Reports from Other ONC Program Evaluations

A multi-year evaluation was conducted to assess the effectiveness of ONC's Workforce Development Program. This report provides an overview of the Workforce Development Program, describes the implementation status through June 2011, and discusses some early programmatic challenges.

This paper presents the motivation and objectives of ONC's SHARP program both at its inception and in the current context of health care in the United States. It offers a brief review of the history and mechanics of the program, including the research areas targeted by program funding. In addition, it describes the anticipated outputs and benefits from SHARP and reviews the approaches to program management, results dissemination, and collaboration that can help extend and accelerate outcomes of the program.

Reports to Congress

This Report to Congress discusses initiatives and incentives for improving health care quality in federally qualified health centers, rural health clinics, and free clinics. It also provides an overview of the current knowledge regarding quality of care and the use of health IT in these facilities.

This Report to Congress provides updates on the adoption of health IT as well as the efforts of the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT to facilitate nationwide adoption and exchange of electronic health information. In addition, it outlines barriers to the adoption and exchange of electronic clinical data.

Small Rural Hospitals Reports

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) funded the Altarum Institute to examine challenges to health IT adoption in small, rural hospitals. This report provides summarizes specific health IT adoption challenges faced by small, rural hospitals and discusses key management strategies they can employ to address the challenges. Findings in this study draw upon information from site visits and interviews with key staff at eight small, rural hospitals throughout the United States, selected from a range of levels of EHR adoption, financial health, and patient and payer mix.

This white paper reviews key components of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Electronic Health Record (EHR) Incentive Program specific to the circumstances and need of Critical Access Hospitals.

Reports on Health IT Workforce Development Program

ONC's Workforce Development Program's primary goal is to train a new workforce of health IT professionals who will be ready to help providers implement and maintain electronic health records to improve health-care quality, safety, and cost-efficiency. In support of the Workforce Development Program, ONC funded NORC at the University of Chicago (NORC) to perform an independent program evaluation. These research briefs describe the grantees' implementation efforts using data from surveys, focus groups, and interviews with students and other key stakeholders involved with the program. The briefs explore the funded colleges’ approaches to integrating evolving and newly developed curricula, recruiting and training faculty and prospective students, and coordinating among the four grant programs. Additionally, these briefs synthesize key programmatic themes, and identify program challenges and successes to date.