Welcome to the Health IT Buzz Blog
Learn more about HHS’s Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC)
Electronic Health & Medical Records Promoting Patient Safety by Managing Health IT Risks
Kathy Kenyon | July 10, 2014
Everyone agrees that health IT safety is important. Promoting Patient Safety Through Effective Health Information Technology Risk Management is a research report that looks into the challenges faced by hospitals and ambulatory practices that implement health IT risk management interventions. The research was conducted by RAND Corporation and the ECRI Institute under contract to ONC.
Read Full Post.
Health Information Exchange Critical Access Hospitals Report Challenges, Yet Forge Ahead with Advanced Health IT Capabilities
Leila Samy | July 8, 2014
Critical Access Hospitals (CAHs), some with a census of fewer than 10 patients, are the smallest of the small rural hospitals. In some regions, such as frontier areas, a CAH may be the only local health care provider serving an area the width of the state of Rhode Island! CAHs are small, geographically isolated and have limited resources.
Read Full Post.
Health Information Exchange Coalition of States, ONC & SAMHSA Successfully Piloted Behavioral Health Data Exchange
John Rancourt | June 27, 2014
A coalition of states, in partnership with the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, successfully completed a pilot project for the interstate exchange of electronic behavioral health data using Direct. This activity illuminated some of the real challenges with using Direct, both technical and operational, but ultimately demonstrated that such exchanges can be performed.
Read Full Post.
Consumer Engagement Patients Play a Vital Role in Improving the Quality of Information in their Medical Records
Erin Poetter Siminerio | June 24, 2014
Federal incentives such as meaningful use and programs like the Blue Button Initiative are increasing patients’ electronic access to their medical records and encouraging greater engagement in their own care. That’s a good thing since medical records can contain errors . Having a “second pair of eyes” on the medical record can help improve the quality of the information that providers ultimately use to make clinical decisions. Patients, after all,
Read Full Post.
Consumer Engagement Launching this fall: the National Blue Button Consumer Campaign
Lygeia Ricciardi | June 23, 2014
At the recent Health Datapalooza Conference held here in Washington DC, ONC announced the next step for a national Blue Button Campaign in coordination with supporters of the Blue Button Initiative. The Blue Button Initiative is a public-private partnership that seeks to give consumers easy and secure access to their health records from a variety of sources in a format they can use.
Read Full Post.