Dr. Doug Fridsma | February 8, 2013
“You’ve got to be very careful if you don’t know where you’re going, because you might not get there.” – Yogi Berra
A few weeks ago, I described the differences between the concepts of interoperability and health information exchange, both important goals of ONC. In this week’s discussion, I want to dive a little deeper into the characteristics of interoperability and why I believe the solutions are not black and white, but rather a shade of gray.
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Claudia Williams | January 28, 2013
Tomorrow, January 29, 2013, the Health Information Technology (HIT) Policy Committee and HIT Standards Committee will hold a joint hearing to:
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John Rancourt | January 25, 2013
Health information exchange (HIE) is not easy. ONC has sponsored expert research on various technical and business-related health information exchange topics, because we know that professionals engaged in implementing health information exchange must possess business acumen and technical expertise, on top of policy savvy and many other competencies. Without these skills there are many ways to overreach, or just as perilously, under reach, resulting in failure to maximize the long-term value of services offered through health information exchange.
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Dr. Doug Fridsma | January 9, 2013
One thing that I’ve learned in the government is that words matter, and sometimes, particularly in complicated or technical areas, it can be hard to use words that are precise and accurate. Sometimes we use the same term to apply to a broad range of concepts or ideas because it can be complicated to describe all the nuances captured by that work. Sometimes the words we use start out as verbs and then turn into nouns.
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Dr. Farzad Mostashari | December 20, 2012
Earlier this year, ONC issued a request for information regarding a potential governance mechanism for the nationwide health information network. Based on the comments and feedback we received from multiple stakeholders, ONC announced in September that we would not be issuing federal regulations. Instead, we committed to launch a range of activities to support existing governance initiatives and advance governance goals of nationwide health information exchange: increase interoperability, decrease the cost and complexity of exchange, and increase trust among participants to mobilize trusted exchange to support patient care.
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