The nation’s healthcare network is developing strategies and manpower to ensure it is ahead of the curve to respond to a potential new wave of infections. One of them is a $73-million effort by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Funds are allotted under the Public Health Informatics & Technology Workforce Development Program to train 5,000 people across the country in Public Health Informatics and Technology (PHIT).

The Office for Civil Rights (OCR) and the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) announced the release of version 3.4 of the Security Risk Assessment (SRA) Tool, further enhancing the user experience and helping covered entities navigate risk assessment requirements under the HIPAA Security Rule. OCR and ONC developed the SRA Tool to help small- and medium-sized healthcare providers identify and assess risks and vulnerabilities to electronic protected health information (ePHI). The tool is a software application that organizations can download at no cost.

ONC and the HHS Office for Civil Rights have released version 3.4 of the popular HHS Security Risk Assessment (SRA) Tool. This tool is designed to aid small and medium sized healthcare organizations in their efforts to assess security risks. The latest version of the SRA Tool contains a variety of feature enhancements based on user feedback and public input.

Thanks to a decade of effort, nearly every U.S. hospital today stores health data electronically. To put that data to work, however, clinicians and patients need to be able to access and appropriately share that data.

Currently, most healthcare organizations are engaging in SDOH data collection within the EHR, with 83 percent reporting as much in an ONC study. EHR vendors that enable specific SDOH data capture include Epic Systems, Cerner, athenahealth, and Allscripts, although that list is not exhaustive. But challenges abound, providers have said. For one thing, there’s a lack of SDOH data standards. Around three-quarters of hospitals told ONC they use some sort of health IT to standardize SDOH data, making it more usable on disparate technology systems that are not part of the EHR. Around one in three (29 percent) use diagnosis codes to standardize SDOH data.