The federal government is racing to keep pace with the rapid evolution of artificial intelligence in health care. The Department of Health and Human Services has roughly six months left to develop a strategic plan on the responsible use of the fast-moving technology in medicine, as mandated by President Biden in an executive order last year. I recently caught up with Micky Tripathi, the national coordinator for health information technology at HHS and co-chair of the task force responsible for devising the plan, about the sweeping effort.
News & Updates
The Health Information Technology Advisory Committee (HITAC) has transmitted the HITAC Annual Report for Fiscal Year 2023 to the HHS secretary and Congress. This sixth edition of the report describes HITAC’s progress during fiscal year 2023. The annual report also describes the health IT and health care industries’ progress in advancing health IT infrastructure in several target areas: design and use of technologies that advance health equity, use of technologies that support public health, interoperability, privacy and security, and patient access to information.
At HIMSS24 on Wednesday, officials from the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT offered some reminders and refreshers on a significant final rule that took effect for many healthcare organizations just over a month ago February 8. And ONC is also previewing what to expect for the next related rulemaking. This past January, the agency published the final rule for the (deep breath) Health Data, Technology, and Interoperability: Certification Program Updates, Algorithm Transparency, and Information Sharing Final Rule (much more pithily phrased as HTI-1) to the Federal Register, with an effective date of March 11, 2024. The rule implements more provisions of the landmark 21st Century Cures Act and makes updates around standards, implementation specs and other criteria for the longstanding ONC Health IT Certification Program.
As agencies continue to work toward modernizing public health data and setting data standards, Center for Diseases Control (CDC), Center for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) and the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) discussed the need for interoperability at HIMSS in Orlando, Florida on Wednesday. Interoperability has been a challenge for health care organizations because of regulations and a lack of standards in the field. Following the COVID-19 pandemic, health care organizations and government agencies began implementing public health data modernization, but smaller and rural health care organizations are lagging behind. ONC’s Molly Prieto said the best way to speed up modernization is to ensure all organizations have the support they need to make the transitions. Prieto highlighted the partnership between CDC and ONC as the two agencies work together to define the core elements of data needed for public health information. Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR), a set of standards for exchanging electronic health data, has helped agencies like CMS and CDC. It is used in smartphone technologies, like Apple Health, that allow patients to quickly share information between platforms and providers.
Deputy National Coordinator for Health IT Steven Posnack discusses a few updates to data sharing and interoperability rules for the health IT community, including HTI-1, HTI-2, United States Core Data for Interoperability (USCDI) and the Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement (TEFCA). As organizations work to adopt new interoperability standards and policies, artificial intelligence is showing promise for its impact in health IT processes. At HIMSS in Orlando, Florida, Posnack highlights how the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology is starting to think about AI and associated ethical concerns.