Earlier this month, I wrote about some of the most important and notable highlights in the world of health IT and ONC over the past year. The achievements of 2011 built on hard work and progress, which has been underway for many years.

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ONC earned its nickname as the “Office of No Christmas” during the 2009 Holiday season roughly two years ago when we, along with our colleagues at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), announced the proposed regulations to govern the Medicare and Medicaid Electronic Health Record Incentive Programs (EHR Incentive programs) established under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Recovery Act). CMS’s proposed rule outlined provisions governing the EHR Incentive programs,

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Recently we’ve heard that we need to reduce optionality in the standards being developed as part of the Standards & Interoperability (S&I) Framework, and we are listening to the health information technology (health IT) community.

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Do you have mobile app ideas or have one already developed? The Surgeon General’s Healthy App Challenge invites developers to submit their health, wellness, and fitness mobile apps for review by an independent panel of reviewers selected by the U.S. Surgeon General, Dr. Regina Benjamin. The panel will be supported by the Office of the Surgeon General, and the ONC Innovations Office and Consumer e-Health program. Winners will be announced at a public event in late January.

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When doctors and hospitals use health information technology (health IT), patients get better care and we can all save money. This results in less paperwork for billing, medical records, and prescribing; easier coordination of care among doctors, nurses, and pharmacists in hospitals and outpatient settings; and better reporting on quality of care. Thanks to President Obama’s leadership, the number of physicians using this important technology to help patients get better care and save money has more than doubled,

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