ONC is excited to share findings from newly published research that sheds light on the impact adoption of 2015 Edition certified health information technology (health IT) has had on hospitals’ rates of interoperability. In a recently published Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association article called Impact of the 2015 Health Information Technology Certification Edition on Interoperability among Hospitals, we examined how variation in the adoption of 2015 Edition certified health IT impacted key measures of interoperable exchange.

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The best way to gather information is by going straight to the source. That’s exactly what ONC did to learn and assess the state of health information entities, also known as health information exchange organizations (HIOs), across the country.  A recent survey conducted by Dr. Julia Adler-Milstein of University of California San Francisco (USCF), with ONC support, is the sixth national HIO survey of its kind. This instrument placed a particular emphasis on the proposed Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement (TEFCA).

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Social determinants of health (SDOH) are the conditions in environments where people are born, live, learn, work, play, worship and age that affect a wide range of health, functioning, and quality-of-life outcomes and risks. Addressing inequities in these conditions, driven in large part due to the root causes of poverty and racism, can be supported in part through the collection, documentation, reporting, access and use of SDOH data.

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One of the fun parts about working at the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) is that in addition to our impactful, near-term work, we also have the chance to point our eyes to the horizon and envision a better future. Throughout my tenure at ONC, different policy, technology, and legislative moments along with ample public feedback have shaped our actions. Yet, there always comes a time to ask, “what’s next? what are we driving toward?

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Time flies! It has been over a year since ONC’s Cures Act Final Rule was first released and since then ONC has been busy advancing the United States Core Data for Interoperability (USCDI) and enabling the healthcare industry to voluntarily implement newer versions of adopted standards via the Standards Version Advancement Process (SVAP) for the purposes of the ONC Health IT Certification.

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