2021 ONC Tech Forum Virtual

Track 1: Equity Considerations in Health IT

Track 2: Advances in Health IT Quality and Interoperability

Track 3: Public Health IT Infrastructure

Track 4: Health IT: From Care Delivery to Research

Session

Welcome and Opening Remarks

Plenary Session: Global Perspective on Patient Health Data: International Patient Summary

The International Patient Summary (IPS) is an electronic health record extract containing essential healthcare information intended for use in unscheduled, cross-border care scenarios. The US Department of Health and Human Services' Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC) represents the US on the Global Digital Health Partnership (GDHP) and chairs the Interoperability Work Stream. The GDHP Interoperability Work Stream is advancing health data interoperability through the IPS Work Group. This session will provide an overview on the GDHP Interoperability Work Stream’s work to-date on advancing IPS and discuss the path forward for implementation.

• Steven Posnack, MS, MHS, ONC (Moderator)
• Jürgen Brandstätter, Austrian Federal Ministry of Social Affairs, Health, Care and Consumer Protection
• Alastair Kenworthy, Ministry of Health New Zealand
• Ian Townend, NHSX

Break

Breakout Sessions I

Track 1: Integrating Social Determinants of Health Data Into Clinical Systems and Connecting with Human Services and Beyond

Providers are increasingly capturing SDOH data from patients as part of a clinical encounter and using this data to help inform clinical care delivery and to support social care referrals in the community. Existing and emerging health IT standards and codes sets specific to SDOH enable this data to be integrated into a care record and exchanged to support referrals aligned with an individuals’ social need(s). This session will outline technical workflows and use cases for integrating SDOH data into an EHR and as part of a shared care plan and will describe the applicable standards and codes sets to support the integration, referral, and use of SDOH data.

• JaWanna Henry, MPH, ONC (Moderator)
• David Wong, MD, Office of Minority Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (Moderator)
• Chris Grasso, MPH, Fenway Health
• Shilpa Patel, PhD, Center for Health Care Strategies
• Melissa Sherry, PhD, MPH, Unite Us
• Anne Smithey, MPH, Center for Health Care Strategies
• Jaffer Traish, Aunt Bertha

Track 2: Advancing Health IT Interoperability in Medical Devices and Laboratory Test Results

This session will focus on the goal of achieving interoperability in labs. We’ll examine different components to help drive us toward that goal, including tech & devices (SHIELD), standards, and policies.

• Andrew Northup, ONC (Moderator)
• W. Scott Campbell, PhD, MBA, University of Nebraska Medical Center
• Krishna Juluru, MD, Presidential Innovation Fellow
• Hung Luu, MD, Children’s Health
• Konstantinos Makrodimitris, PhD, MSc, Food and Drug Administration
• Bakul Patel, Food and Drug Administration
• Sandy Weininger, Food and Drug Administration

Track 3: Leveraging Modern APIs to Solve National Needs

FHIR-based approaches to data exchange have helped address stakeholder needs and provided opportunities for collaboration between government and industry. Newly launched FHIR Accelerators focused on public health reporting to efforts to scale existing IGs and tools are helping to extend existing FHIR artifacts and fill in the gaps in a manner that is flexible and reusable. This session will showcase adoption of FHIR APIs in healthcare and showcase FHIR-based reporting tools that can plug into EHRs (or HIEs) and extract data from EHRs without requiring customized integrations from technology vendors.

• Rachel Abbey, ONC (Moderator)
• Dan Chaput, ONC (Moderator)
• Noam Arzt, PhD, HLN Consulting
• Paula Braun, MS, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
• Amy Gleason, United States Digital Service
• Rick Klau, JD, California Department of Technology

Track 4: Interoperability Needs for a Learning Health Care System

This session will discuss the role of large research networks. Focusing on the development and maintenance of standards and common data models toward meeting interoperability needs for research.

• Avinash Shanbhag, ONC (Moderator)
• Christian Reich, MD, PhD, OHDSI
• Ken Gersing, MD, National Institutes of Health
• Nik Koscielniak, PhD, MS, MPH, PCORI

Break

Plenary Session: The Future of Health Information Technology for Women, by Women

Global investments in technology to support women’s health needs have grown exponentially in the last 2 years. This session will explore how women’s health needs are shaping the future of health IT. From policy and implementation to investments in platforms and tools that support women and their families, and give voice to the discussion about health care needs in a post-pandemic world.

• Ryan Argentieri, ONC (Moderator)
• Lisa Lewis, ONC (Moderator)
• Crystal Adesanya, BS, Kiira Health
• Pamela Goldberg, MBA, Medical Device Innovation Consortium
• Elizabeth Rockett, MBA, MPH, Kaiser Permanente Ventures
• Maria Velissaris, MBA, SteelSky Ventures

Break

Take this time to visit the Exhibit Hall!

Breakout Sessions II

Track 1: Advancing Equity by Design in Health Care via Health IT

This session will provide an overview of some of ONC’s current standards activities to support health equity by design as it involves health IT and highlight specific approaches and opportunities in the field using health IT standards on race, ethnicity, and SOGI for identifying equity gaps and informing approaches for health equity improvement.

• JaWanna Henry, MPH, ONC (Moderator)
• Samantha Meklir, ONC (Moderator)
• Maria Caban Alizondo, PhD, RHIT, FAHIMA, American Health Information Management Association
• Leigh Ann Eagle, MAC Inc.
• Tammy Koger, MS, CPM, North Carolina State University
• Abner Mason, ConsejoSano
• Linda Rae Murray, MD, MPH, University of Chicago
• Ruth Wetta, RN, PhD, MPH, MSN, Cerner

Track 2: Interoperability in Practice: Transforming Health Care Delivery and Community Health

Explore and discuss ways health plans, payors and providers are expanding access to information for patients and other key stakeholders

• Elise Anthony, ONC (Moderator)
• Ricky Bloomfield, MD, Apple
• Tina Grande, Healthcare Leadership Council
• Cille Kissel, Humana
• Jason Teeple, Evernorth

Track 3: Health IT Innovations in Public Health Infrastructure

This session will showcase how state health departments responded to the pandemic and highlight innovative solutions and tools built to address challenges facing state and local public health departments, including FHIR

• Ryan Argentieri, ONC (Moderator)
• Jeff Brown, Ohio Department of Health
• Carie Clements, Accenture
• Robert Laing, Oregon Health Authority
• Jennifer McNamara, Washington State Department of Health
• Cody McNeese, Oregon Health Authority
• Bill Storm, Ohio Department of Health
• Ben Stutz, District of Columbia Office of the City Administrator

Track 4: Accelerating APIs for Scientific Discovery

The use of FHIR based APIs has the potential to streamline the collection of basic data elements from electronic health records allowing researchers to repurpose their time, resources, and focus. With easy-to-access architecture in place, the barrier to entry for research institutions previously excluded due to the resource intensity of collecting these basic elements will be lowered. This session will highlight various examples of emerging APIs and apps used in the research community and for novel use cases.

• Kim Klein, CPHIMS, SHIMSS, CCSFP, Clinovations Government + Health (Moderator)
• Alex Cheng, PhD, Vanderbilt University Medical Center
• Jon Duke, MD, MS Georgia Tech
• Viet Nguyen, MD, Stratametrics

Track 1: Equity Considerations in Health IT

Track 2: Advances in Health IT Quality and Interoperability

Track 3: Public Health IT Infrastructure

Track 4: Health IT: From Care Delivery to Research

Session

Plenary Session: Fireside Chat with the National Coordinator

• Eric Lander, PhD, White House Office of Science and Technology Policy
• Micky Tripathi, PhD, MPP, ONC

Break

Breakout Sessions III

Track 1: Exploring Health IT Approaches in Under-Resourced Communities

Disproportionately impacted communities often don’t have the resources required to deploy and benefit from certified health IT solutions. This session discusses the health information challenges facing these communities and ways in which those disparities can be addressed.

• Mitchell Thornbrugh, MBA, Indian Health Service (Moderator)
• Alejandra Casillas, MD, UCLA Health
• Benjamin Cook, PhD, MPH, Cambridge Health Alliance, Harvard Medical School
• Angelica Geter, DrPH, MPH, Black Women’s Health Imperative
• Medell Briggs-Malonson, MD, MPH, UCLA Health

Track 2: Automation & the Future State of Quality Measures: New Initiatives to Transform Health Care

This session will explore several digital transformation quality initiatives including specialty society work on guideline transformation, healthcare system work with clinical decision support, and government regulatory perspectives on the future of quality.

• Terry Boch, Diameter Health (Moderator)
• Mrinal Bhasker, MBA, Leap Orbit
• Helen Burstin, Council of Medical Specialty Societies
• Blackford Middleton, Apervita
• Michele Schreiber, MD, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services

Track 3: Innovations in Health IT: Perspectives from Pandemic Response

The pandemic led patients and providers to lean on remote health technologies like telehealth more than ever before. This forced increased innovation in providing care at home, characterized by the “hospital-at-home" movement. This session will highlight the technology driving the movement and several implementations that represent how care can evolve to meet new and unexpected conditions.

• Adam Wong, ONC (Moderator)
• John Halamka, MD, MS, Mayo Clinic
• Bruce Leff, MD, Johns Hopkins Medicine
• David Levine, MD, MA, Brigham & Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School
• Pippa Shulman, DO, MPH, Medically Home

Track 4: Health IT Standards in Research

This session will discuss challenges and proposed solutions that have been developed and tested through FHIR accelerators. Vulcan seeks to bring together stakeholders across the translational and clinical research community in order to bridge existing gaps between clinical care and clinical research, strategically connect industry collaboratives, maximize collective resources, and deliver integrated tools and resources. CodeX is working to implement the vision of collecting cancer patient data once, and re-using it to enable a range of use cases by integrating the mCODE (minimal Common Oncology Data Elements) FHIR Implementation Guide -- a standard language for cancer data -- into existing and new applications.

• Alex Kontur, ONC (Moderator)
• Steve Bratt, PhD, MITRE
• Amy Cramer, MMCi, BSN, CPHQ, Pfizer
• Robert Miller, MD, American Society of Clinical Oncology

Break

Breakout Sessions IV

Track 2: Improving Quality Measure Reporting Using New Approaches

This session will focus on current efforts to advance quality reporting data and technology including the role of FHIR and how it can replace current standards for electronic quality data capture and reporting.

• Viet Nguyen, MD, Stratametrics (Moderator)
• Linda Michaelson, Optum
• Sreekanth Puram, MS, Mettle Solutions
• Bryn Rhodes, Alphora

Track 2: Measuring Interoperability: Federal Agency Activities

This session will discuss the use of measurement and data to inform Federal Agencies’ work. The DOD/VA’s the Federal Electronic Health Record Modernization (FEHRM) will provide an overview of their interoperability measurement initiatives, the CDC will discuss their efforts related to measuring interoperability of public health agencies, and the FDA will share their efforts related to the use of real-world data and real-world evidence in decision-making.

• John Auerbach, MBA, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Moderator)
• Sara Brenner, MD, MPH, Food and Drug Administration
• Alan Sim, PhD, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
• Norman Stone, MD, Federal Electronic Health Record Modernization Program Office

Track 3: Modernizing Public Health IT Work Force: Challenges and Opportunities

This session will showcase efforts by both the federal government and county officials to support and grow staff expertise in health departments across the country to meet current and future demands. This session will also include an overview of the new Public Health Informatics & Technology (PHIT) Workforce Development Program.

• Sherilyn Pruitt, ONC (Moderator)
• Ernest L. Carter, MD, PhD, Prince George’s County Health Department
• Kate Glynn, DVM, MPVM, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Track 4: Enhancing USCDI: Data Needs for Researchers

Increasing adoption of health IT by healthcare organizations presents new opportunities and challenges for researchers. This session will feature work by researchers to leverage or incorporate new technologies FHIR and USCDI. Panelists will discuss how they have approached research in an evolving healthcare landscape, including efforts to standardize data, improve interoperability, and support the research community.

• Clem McDonald, MD, National Institutes of Health (Moderator)
• Kathy Bowles, PhD, RN, University of Pennsylvania
• Michael Chiang, MD, National Institutes of Health
• Brenda Duggan, RN, National Institutes of Health
• Paulina Sockolow, DrPH, Drexel University

Break

Plenary Session: Standards Coordination in Action: Project US@

In January 2021, ONC kicked off Project US@ with a goal to issue a unified, cross-SDO, healthcare industry-wide specification for representing patient addresses. A lot of progress has been made throughout the year, including launch of the Project US@ Technical Workgroup, launch of the Project US@ AHIMA Companion Guide Workgroup, release of DRAFT version 1.0 of the Technical Specification and comment periods at HL7, NCPDP, and X12, launch of the Project US@ API pilot study, and other ongoing standards development and collaboration to support widespread adoption, implementation, and uniformity of practice.

• Carmen Smiley, ONC (Moderator)
• Wayne Kubick, Health Level Seven International
• Julie Pursley, American Health Information Management Association
• Cathy Sheppard, X12
• Jeffrey Tackes, United States Postal Service
• Margaret Weiker, National Council for Prescription Drug Programs