As many Buzz Blog readers know, we have made significant progress in the flow of health information, but we still have work to do to ensure different systems speak the same language and data flows seamlessly and securely. To that end, today we announced two new funding opportunities at the 2016 Health Datapalooza, totaling $1.5 million, to advance common standards: the High Impact Pilots (HIP) and Standards Exploration Awards (SEA). These two cooperative agreement programs are part of the broader path we have laid out in the Nationwide Interoperability Roadmap and our new ONC Tech Lab approach for standards and technology,

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As health IT adoption continues to grow and mobile health technology becomes more accessible, consumers are playing an even greater role in how and when their health information is exchanged or shared.  Unleashing this data is one of our top priorities here at ONC, as outlined in the Nationwide Interoperability Roadmap, which aims to improve individuals’ ability to send, receive, find, and use their health information in the near term. 

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Approximately two months ago, we launched the Interoperability Proving Ground (IPG), an open, community platform where you can share, learn, and be inspired by interoperability projects taking place across the nation. Since its launch, the IPG has steadily gained new entries. What started as 30 active projects across dozens of states has grown to over 200.

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Our previously published blog post about the ONC Tech Lab explained how it would guide our approach to standards and technology and help lay the operational groundwork within ONC necessary to implement the Interoperability Roadmap, our near-term health IT strategy, and the Federal Health IT Strategic Plan. We described that through the ONC Tech Lab we would address four focus areas: 1) standards coordination; 2) testing and utilities; 3) pilots; and 4) innovation.

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As a health care consumer, imagine if you were able to choose a software application (app) to create a secure snapshot of your health information, like pictures that extend over the course of your lifetime. Similarly, imagine as a health care provider if you could find apps uniquely tailored to your specialty or role on the care team and that provide the health information you need in a way that is safe, secure, intuitive, and actionable.

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