Earlier this year, ASTP (formerly ONC) celebrated its 20th anniversary, marking both the progress made in health IT and the continued realization of ASTP’s vision for an interoperable health care ecosystem. Recently, we had the privilege of speaking with Micky Tripathi, Assistant Secretary for Technology Policy and Acting Chief AI Officer at HHS. Our discussion explored the evolving landscape of health care interoperability, highlighting key achievements from both the public and private sectors as well as ongoing challenges in the quest for seamless global data exchange.

Epic has introduced new capabilities supporting Version 3 of the United States Core Data for Interoperability. They're available more than a year before the federally required December 2025 date to support the new data set. . . The Office of the National Coordinator for Healthcare Technology completed its final health IT certification rule, which revised several program certification criteria and set a timeline for raising the baseline version of the USCDI from Version 1 to Version 3 by January 1, 2026. "The adoption of new and revised standards and criteria in this final rule will facilitate interoperability through standardized health information and functionality, which will lead to better care and health outcomes for patients while reducing burden and costs," said ONC (now known as ASTP/ONC) upon publication of HTI-1 in the Federal Register.

Patient-centric health IT has surged in the past decade, ONC reported.

Here are five top areas of growth for patient engagement in IT, according to the Oct. 31 blog post:

1. Hospitals that have adopted an EHR system: 96%

2. Prescribers using electronic prescriptions: 92%

3. Office-based physicians who have adopted an EHR system: 78%

4. Hospital engagement in all four areas of interoperability: 70%

5. Individuals offered and accessed a patient portal: 57%

Earlier this year we celebrated the 20th birthday of the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Technology Policy/Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (hereafter ASTP) and reflected on the transformative impact of health IT on patient care delivery in the US. These developments have been instrumental in creating a more connected and patient-focused health care system, supporting our goal of seamless data exchange between health care providers, and enabling real-time access to critical patient health information.

The Department of Health and Human Services announced in July that it was reorganizing its internal operations to place more of an emphasis on data and emerging technologies, including artificial intelligence.  As part of the restructuring, HHS’s Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology was renamed the Assistant Secretary for Technology Policy and Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology. Micky Tripathi, who has been serving as the department’s acting chief artificial intelligence officer, was named as the head of the new joint office. HHS is currently in the process of looking to hire a permanent CAIO, chief technology officer and chief data officer, all of which will be overseen by Tripathi in his new role.