The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), through the Assistant Secretary for Technology Policy and Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ASTP), today announced two awards totaling $2 million under the Leading Edge Acceleration Projects in Health Information Technology

The year started with the publication of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) Interoperability and Prior Authorization Final Rule in January. In February, we saw the adoption of the final rule modifying the Confidentiality of Substance Use Disorder Patient Record regulation at 42 CFR Part 2 by the Department for Health and Human Services via the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) or the Office of Civil Rights (OCR).

A couple months later, in April, the HIPAA Privacy Rule to Support Reproductive Health Care Privacy Final Rule was published. Then in July, we saw the publication of the newly rebranded Assistant Secretary for Technology Policy and Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ASTP/ONC) proposed HTI-2 rule. These regulatory initiatives can be divided into two key buckets – interoperability and patient privacy. This should not be a huge surprise, because these have always been the two core focuses of healthcare regulation in the United States. 

It’s been an incredibly busy summer for the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT, which has responsibility for developing federal policy and rules regarding health information technology. The agency received new authority, has been restructured and renamed (now the Assistant Secretary for Technology Policy). Its director, Micky Tripathi, has been named the administration’s acting Chief AI Officer and the agency itself has published a plethora of proposed policies and final rules in the past 90 days.

Micky Tripathi, Assistant Secretary for Technology Policy and National Coordinator for Health IT at ASTP/ONC delves into the recent reorganization at the office. This restructuring aims to streamline and consolidate critical functions such as AI, data policy, and cybersecurity across multiple agencies under HHS. Tripathi discusses how the department, with its vast scope— encompassing agencies like the CDC, NIH, and FDA has been working to create better synergies and improve collaboration on technological initiatives. By aligning technology closer to the core missions of each agency, this overhaul seeks to improve the efficiency of operations, maximize resource use and enhance inter-agency communication. He also stresses the importance of viewing technology as a strategic asset, not merely an administrative cost, and explains how new roles, such as the Chief AI Officer and Chief Data Officer, will help drive innovation across the department. With a focus on mission-oriented technologies and ensuring dedicated teams for strategic planning and execution, ASTP/ONC is poised to lead the way in transforming health information technology.

High-quality, reliable data is crucial to getting most things done in healthcare, especially for healthcare interoperability. However, having the data alone isn’t enough – we need to be able to share our data between healthcare entities. Without having the same data sets, how else are our organizations and different healthcare entities supposed to work together seamlessly? We’ve made some great strides in improving interoperability, in no small part due to the Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement (TEFCA).