Portrait of The Honorable Martin O'Malley ,

MD Governor: Maryland’s HIE is a Platform for Innovation

The Honorable Martin O'Malley | March 18, 2013

To support innovation and progress in health care, I have made the construction of a health IT infrastructure one of our state’s top strategic priorities. My administration has promoted Electronic Health Record (EHR) adoption and supported the construction of a Maryland HIE (health information exchange). Connecting these systems to a common platform is the key to significant progress.

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Portrait of Dr. Farzad Mostashari ,

Health IT: Charting the Course for 2013 to Harness Health IT to Bring Down Costs and Improve Quality in Health Care

Dr. Farzad Mostashari | March 6, 2013

Today HHS is announcing critical progress toward building the infrastructure needed for Health Information Technology (IT) systems to communicate seamlessly and securely.  This is crucial to our efforts to modernize our health care delivery system and will facilitate our efforts to bring down costs and improve care for patients.

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Portrait of Larry Jessup , ,

Let’s Keep One Million Hearts Beating Strong!

Larry Jessup | March 5, 2013

In February, communities across America celebrated American Heart month to promote healthy lifestyles and provide Americans with resources to prevent and control heart disease.
Every year, approximately 935,000 Americans suffer from a heart attack, and about 600,000 people die from heart disease, which is 1 out of every 4 American deaths.  Heart Disease is the leading cause of death for both men and women in the United States.

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Portrait of Jodi G. Daniel

ONC’s Thoughts on Patents, Health IT, and Meaningful Use

Jodi G. Daniel | March 4, 2013

ONC was recently asked whether the regulatory requirements for EHR certification and meaningful use, especially some of the more patient-focused requirements, like the view, download, and transmit to a 3rd party meaningful use objective, could implicate patents.
We want to share with you our thoughts on patents and meaningful use, and identify the proactive steps ONC is taking to understand their implications and share that understanding with the community.

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Portrait of Jodi G. Daniel

National Health Information Exchange Governance Forum Announced

Jodi G. Daniel | March 1, 2013

Last year, ONC issued a Request for Information looking for comments about a potential governance mechanism for the nationwide health information network.  Based on comments we received, along with feedback from multiple stakeholders, we decided not to continue with a formal rulemaking process, but instead pursue a non-regulatory approach to health information exchange (HIE) governance.  We committed to launching a range of activities to support and learn from existing governance initiatives and advance our HIE goals:

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