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Learn more about HHS’s Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC)
Health IT Certification, Standards Inferno Redesigned: Easier, Faster, Extensible
John Bender | March 8, 2022
ONC is excited to announce the launch of the Inferno Framework and the (g)(10) Standardized API Test Kit, the new version of the testing method for the § 170.315(g)(10) criterion in the ONC Health IT Certification Program (Certification Program). This new edition of Inferno is the product of a continued evolution of health IT standards testing and is designed to be more useful for health IT developers and easier for the health IT community to leverage for different types of standards conformance testing.
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21st Century Cures Act, Health IT Certification, Health IT Policy, Standards An Upcoming Milestone in Our Interoperability Journey
Jeff Smith | March 3, 2022
It’s going to be a busy year – a really busy year. In 2022, much of the promise of the 21st Century Cures Act comes to certified health IT near you.
ONC dutifully monitors industry progress towards certification to the 2015 Edition Cures Update (Cures Update), which introduces new standards and functionalities that will benefit our health care system in a variety of ways. This includes improved interoperability through secure, standards-based application programming interfaces (APIs) and the United States Core Data for Interoperability Version 1 (USCDI v1);
21st Century Cures Act, Health Information Exchange, Information Blocking Information Blocking Claims: By the Numbers
Rachel Nelson | February 28, 2022
The 21st Century Cures Act (Cures Act), signed into law by President Obama in 2016, directed ONC to implement a standardized process for the public to report claims of possible information blocking. The information blocking claims reporting process welcomes claims of possible information blocking from anyone who believes they may have experienced or observed information blocking. Any information received by ONC in connection with a claim or suggestion of possible information blocking and that could reasonably be expected to facilitate identification of the source of the information (claimant) is protected from disclosure under the Cures Act.
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From the ONC Desk, Health Equity Changing the Face of Healthcare – “Be the Change”
Lisa Lewis Person | February 23, 2022
As we think about healthcare during Black History Month, we should ask ourselves how we can do more to ensure that diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) remain at the forefront of our efforts. At the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC), we work every day to “be the change” that we believe in—both internally and externally. Our internal efforts include a focus on minority recruiting and standing up a DEIA committee comprising leadership and staff.
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Health Data, Health Equity, Health IT, ONC Events Embracing Health Equity by Design
Ryan Argentieri | February 22, 2022
Gaps in health IT use illustrate the inequities that unfortunately exist in our health care system, which in turn can lead to inadequate patient care, experience, and outcomes. During ONC’s 2021 Tech Forum, Dr. Linda Rae Murray, the former chief medical officer at the Cook County Health & Hospital System, highlighted some of the health disparities she had seen firsthand while serving medically underserved patients in Chicago for more than 20 years.
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