Portrait of Dr. David Blumenthal

The Meaningful Use NPRM Public Comment Open

Dr. David Blumenthal | January 15, 2010

The Meaningful Use NPRM and the Initial Set of Standards and Certification Criteria IFR have now been published and are available for public comment.
To view/download the Meaningful Use NPRM:  PDF [7.38 MB] | HTML
To view/download the Initial Set of Standards and Certification Criteria IFR:  PDF [247 KB] | HTML
Please make your comments through regulations.gov.
Also, my recent article in the New England Journal of Medicine zooms out for a bird’s eye view of how these regulations fit within the larger context of the HITECH Act. 

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Portrait of Dr. David Blumenthal

A Meaningful Use Defining Moment

Dr. David Blumenthal | December 30, 2009

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued its draft definition for the “meaningful use” of electronic health records (EHRs) today as part of its notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM).  The NPRM describes the proposed implementation of incentives to providers for the adoption and meaningful use of certified EHRs.  This NPRM from CMS kicks off a 60-day public comment period to help inform its development of the final 2011 meaningful use criteria.

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Portrait of Joshua Seidman

ONC’s Work to Stimulate Innovation and Diffuse EHR Best Practices

Joshua Seidman | December 28, 2009

A recent New Yorker article by Atul Gawande skillfully draws an analogy between today’s health care crisis and the food crisis our country faced a century ago. Whereas the heath care system currently consumes about 17% of the U.S. economy, Americans spent more than 40% of their income on food at the turn of the last century. Like our current health care system, there existed a huge chasm between what science suggested could be achieved in improved quality and productivity and how farmers dispersed throughout the country were actually practicing.

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Expanding and Strengthening the Health IT Workforce

Dr. David Blumenthal | December 24, 2009

Today the administration announced two additional programs to support the development of the skilled workforce needed to support broad adoption and use of health IT.  Awards totaling $32 million to establish or expand university-based health IT training programs and $6 million dollars to develop a health IT competency testing program will complement the previously announced workforce development program grants established through the Recovery Act.

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