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Consumer Engagement Making Patient Access to Their Health Information a Reality
Lygeia Ricciardi | June 25, 2012
As Americans, we each have the legal right to access our health information held by doctors, hospitals and others that provide health care services for us, thanks to the HIPAA Privacy Rule. But 41 percent say they never have. Why? In a paper-based health care system, it can be time consuming, expensive, and cumbersome to get copies of your medical records. And what do you do with a stack—or maybe even a room full—of paper health records?
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Federal Advisory Committees Joint Hearing to Conceptualize Clinical Quality for Meaningful Use Stage 3
Joshua Seidman | June 19, 2012
Recognizing the importance of evolving quality concepts within the Electronic Health Record (EHR) Incentive Programs, two ONC federal advisory committee workgroups jointly held a full day hearing on June 7, 2012 to identify ways in which Meaningful Use Stage 3 may advance the consistent delivery of high quality care in diverse care settings. Experts from health care delivery organizations, quality improvement organizations, industry, and academia shared insights regarding how clinical decision support,
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Federal Advisory Committees Federal Advisory Committees Seeking Input on Incorporation of Patient-Generated Data for Stage 3 Meaningful Use
Joshua Seidman | June 18, 2012
ONC’s federal advisory committees (FACAs) held a full-day hearing on June 8 (written testimony can be found here) to explore how patient-generated health data (PGHD) might be incorporated into Meaningful Use (MU) of EHRs for Stage 3 of the EHR Incentive Programs. Some examples of PGHD are data from a patient’s personal health record, data from a blood glucose monitor, or information about a patient’s functional status. Three FACA workgroups hosted the hearing: The Health IT Policy Committee’s MU and Quality Measurement Workgroups,
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EHR Case Studies, State HIE Bright Spots of the Direct Project Adoption
Brett Andriesen | June 18, 2012
Reflect for a moment on the last time your doctor referred you to a specialist. When you arrived, did the specialist say, “Sorry, I did not get your paperwork, can you tell me why you are you here?” Wouldn’t it be great if your specialist already had the health information she needed before you arrived, so you did not have to remember your medications, previous tests, and diagnoses?
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Community College Consortia How the Region A Community College Consortia Is Training Health IT Professionals
Patricia Dombrowski | June 7, 2012
In late 2009, educators in the 10 northwestern states banded together to answer the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology’s (ONC) call for the nation’s community colleges to help train the health IT professionals needed to help providers and hospitals make the transition to adopting and meaningfully using certified electronic health records (EHRs).
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