Health IT Safety ONC Publishes New Reports on Health IT Safety
Andrew Gettinger | June 10, 2016
Safety is and always has been a top priority at ONC. We have incorporated safety into the ONC Health IT Certification Program [PDF-257KB] and our guiding documents, the Federal Health IT Strategic Plan: 2015 – 2020 [PDF-1.2MB] and Shared Nationwide Interoperability Roadmap. More specifically, ONC created a series of tools to help with the safe use of health IT, including a guide to e-prescribing and nine self-assessment protocols (called SAFER guides) that identify recommended practices to optimize the safety and safe use of electronic health records (EHRs).
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Consumer Engagement Empowering Patients: New Videos to Promote Access to Electronic Health Information
Dr. Karen B. DeSalvo | June 2, 2016
The Office for Civil Rights (OCR) released a HIPAA fact sheet earlier this year reinforcing patients’ right to access their health information and clarifying, among other things, that patients may be charged only limited fees for copies of their health information. Many people are not fully aware of their right to access their own medical records under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), including the right to access an electronic copy when their health information is stored electronically.
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Consumer Engagement Playbooks Aren’t Just for Sports Teams: Helping Providers and Patients Work Together with Health IT
Thomas A. Mason | June 2, 2016
Clinicians and other health care providers practice medicine with the noble goal of improving patient outcomes. The day-to-day considerations in treating patients are complex, which is where technology can be leveraged to streamline and better inform the patient-provider interaction.
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From the ASTP Desk, Interoperability A Foundation for Discovering Clinical Health IT Applications
Dr. Karen B. DeSalvo | June 1, 2016
Every day across America, health information technology (health IT) professionals and development teams are creating interoperability solutions using application programming interfaces (APIs). As this surge of innovation grows with each passing year, the likelihood that teams across the nation are creating similar or duplicative health IT applications is also increasing. Unfortunately, our capability to search for, discover, compare, and test existing applications has been limited and this lack of available information may contribute to a lag in the diffusion of innovation across the health IT application ecosystem.
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Health IT Certification Transparency Requirements for Health IT Developers Will Help Providers Know More About Their Products
Elise Sweeney Anthony | June 1, 2016
Health information technology (health IT) developers must now comply with enhanced transparency requirements associated with their products. This regulatory requirement is applicable to all health IT certified to the 2014 Edition, as well as newly issued 2015 Edition of standards, implementation specifications, and certification criteria. These new disclosures are designed to help purchasers and users better understand the capabilities and limitations of their health IT products.
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