Patients who receive test results online before their physician has had a chance to review them should have immediate access to resources to help them adjust to bad news, an expert suggested. "We need to do more to wrap patients in support and information tools and technology when that result is scary, when that result is catastrophic," Grace Cordovano, PhD, a patient advocate in West Caldwell, New Jersey, said Monday on a webinar sponsored by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC).

Technology proposed new regulations in April that would require developers to share with clinicians a fuller picture of what data were used to build algorithms. Kathryn Marchesini, the agency's chief privacy officer, described the new regulations as a "nutrition label" that helps doctors know "the ingredients used to make the algorithm." The hope is more transparency will help providers determine if an algorithm is unbiased enough to safely use on patients.

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC) is building upon the 21st Cures Act mandates to improve data sharing and create a seamless experience for patients by advancing its Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement (TEFCA) and United States Core Data for Interoperability (USCDI).  

ONC recently released the draft USCDI+ Quality data element list for public comment on the eCQI Resource Center website. This release provides an initial, high-level picture of the USCDI+ initiative in action. It is a harmonized set of data elements for quality measurement that could be used to support measurement and reporting across a wide number of quality programs. ONC requests feedback on this draft list by 11:59pm ET on June 30, 2023, particularly its level of completeness, level of specificity, and the usefulness of companion guidance.

CancerX, a public-private partnership focused on cancer innovation, said Friday it has welcomed 91 founding member organizations representing payers, providers, pharmaceutical companies and digital health firms. The Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology and Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health are co-hosts of the partnership alongside the Tampa, Florida-based Moffitt Cancer Center and industry group the Digital Medicine Society. The partnership was announced by the White House in February as part of the Cancer Moonshot initiative, which was relaunched in 2022 and aims to cut cancer death rates in half over the next 25 years.