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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ASTP Events, Health Data, Health Equity, Health IT 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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Health IT Certification DYK: There’s a Conformance Review Process for Certified Health IT
Pablo Ardaya | February 8, 2022
The use of certified health IT in clinical settings is complicated. We know that certification testing in the lab is different from using certified health IT in the real world, somewhat akin to the difference between “efficacy” and “effectiveness” in drug development. This is why the ONC Health IT Certification Program (Certification Program) compels participating developers to ensure that their certified health IT conforms to the full range of requirements during and after lab-based testing. When suspected issues arise with certified health IT – sometimes called “non-conformities” – the Certification Program’s conformance review process helps provide a path to resolve them.
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21st Century Cures Act, Health IT, Health IT Certification, Health IT Policy, Standards Shining a Light on FHIR Implementation: Progress Toward Publishing FHIR Endpoints
Wes Barker | February 1, 2022
Using APIs “without Special Effort”
The ONC’s Cures Act Final Rule (Cures Rule) supports patients’ and providers’ access to electronic health information (EHI) through Health Level Seven (HL7®) Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR®) application programming interfaces (APIs). FHIR is ready for prime-time and the Cures Rule requires certain developers of certified health IT to provide a certified, FHIR API to their customer base by December 31, 2022.
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