What's Happening in Health IT

In This Issue

Register Before It’s Too Late – 5th Annual Consumer Health IT Summit

Time is running out to register for ONC’s 5th Annual Consumer Summit! Registration is still open. Join us onThursday, October 1st in Washington, D.C. This popular event is free and sells out each year. The Summit will feature inspiring consumer speakers like Steven Keating who will share his personal story about how he helped diagnose his own brain cancer and collaborated with his care team using health IT. We will also have powerful keynote speakers including White House Chief Data Scientist, DJ Patil; President of the National Partnership for Women and Families, Debra Ness; Health and Human Services Chief Technology Officer, Susannah Fox, and moderated discussion with industry leaders and consumers on a host of consumer engagement topic areas.

ONC Announces $1 Million in Grant Awards to Support Health Information Exchange and Care Coordination Across the Entire Health System

Today, we announced the names of ten (10) community programs that will support care providers who aren’t able to receive incentive payments under the Medicare and Medicaid Electronic Health Record Incentive Programs. These programs will collaborate with others in their communities to securely share and use electronic health data with providers and individuals across the health ecosystem. These important investments should help with the flow of health information to individuals no matter the care setting in which they receive care. These awards will also foster an interoperable learning health system—truly linking the traditional health care system with community and social support— resulting in healthier people and communities.

The ten programs are:

AltaMed Health Services Corporation
Community Health Center Network, Inc.
Georgia Health Information Network
National Healthy Start Association
Nevada Department of Health and Human Services (DHSS)
Peninsula Community Health Services
Rhode Island Quality Institute
The Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System
Utah Department of Health
Washtenaw County-Community Support and Treatment Services

Read the full post on our blog.

Have Issues with your Health IT Products?

ONC now has an easy way to share your complaints related to health IT certification, safety, usability, or information blocking. We launched www.healthit.gov/healthitcomplaints to address concerns you may have with your health IT products. The new resource will also serve as a single point of entry for you to report problems or complaints about your health IT product. The new reporting mechanism will help us here at ONC better triage, track, route and respond to your health IT concerns or challenges. The new complaint tool will also help us make sure that your complaint or concern finds its way to the appropriate person at ONC or elsewhere in the federal government. This centralized and streamlined customer service process will also help us in our understanding of key challenges—including potential ways to address information blocking and improve the security, safety, and usability of health IT. If you do need to reach us at www.HealthIT.gov/healthitcomplaints, we will make every effort to work with you to help address your concerns. Want to learn more? Read our latest blog post!

New White Paper on Consumer-Centered Telehealth Experience

Recently, ONC led a design workshop, facilitated by Dr. Kyra Bobinet. The workshop attracted over 30 private and public stakeholders selected for their expertise in telehealth delivery and practices supporting a person-centered, community-based model of care delivery. It also featured presentations from our federal partners such as Marc Hartstein, Director of Hospital and Ambulatory Policy Group at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, and John Peters, Supervisory Telehealth Program Analyst at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. After formal presentations from federal partners, in a fast-paced design session, attendees shared their perspectives and visionfor the next generation of consumer-centered telehealth and eVisit-encounters. From the workshop, nine key design principles and recommendations emanated for future state consumer-centered telehealth experiences. Their recommendations and further overview of the event has been captured in a whitepaper entitled: “Designing the Consumer-Centered Telehealth & eVisit Experience: Considerations for the Future of Consumer Healthcare.” The white paper is now posted for your reading pleasure. Do reach out via Twitter to let us know what you are doing to provide consumer-centered telehealth and eVisit experiences: @ONC_HealthIT

Webinar - Qs and As: A Roadmap for a National Health IT Safety Collaboratory

Please join us Friday, September 25, 2:00 p.m. -3:00 p.m. (EDT) for an added Questions & Answers (Q&A) session to discuss the Roadmap for a National Health IT Safety Collaboratory. In this session, individuals who participated in the development of the Roadmap, including Andy Gettinger, MD, Richard Landen, MBA, and Doug Johnston, MTS, will be available to discuss the findings and recommendations of the project and respond to attendee questions. Attendees are strongly encouraged to prepare for this session by viewing the September 10, 2015 presentation (slides with audio) on the health IT safety roadmap. Register now for this free event! TheCollaboratory Roadmap is also available!

FCC Broadband Health Summit Agenda Released

Interested in learning more about the future of telehealth both in Florida and across the country? Want to hear how leaders across the health and technology sectors envision the health and care system of the future? The Federal Communications Commission’s Connect2Health Task Force is co-hosting a policy summit with the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville on October 1. The Broadband Health Summit, Building Connected Health and Smart Care Systems in Florida and Beyond, will highlight how broadband-enabled health technologies can transform health and care for seniors and people with disabilities. FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn, and Dr. Steve Ommen, head of Connected Care for the Mayo Clinic, will be featured along with senior executives from Microsoft, MDLive, Healthspot, and HCN. Agenda and additional panelist information is now available online at fcc.gov/health. This event is free and open to the public, but space is limited. If you would like to attend, please e-mail connect2health@fcc.gov with "Registration" in the subject line and provide your name, organization affiliation and contact information. For additional event information, visit fcc.gov/health.

The Million Hearts Cardiovascular Risk Reduction Model

The Million Hearts Cardiovascular Risk Reduction Model is currently accepting applications through October 8, 2015. The Model uses a randomized-controlled design to identify and test scalable models of care delivery that reduce cardiovascular risk. The Model offers financial incentives to providers who participate. Visit the CMS website to access the Request for Applications. You can call us at 703-894-4399 or email us atmhmodel@cms.hhs.gov to get your questions answered.

Federal Advisory Committee Schedule Week of September 21 (all times EDT)

Monday

2:00 p.m.: Our Privacy & Security Workgroup meets. Check for the agenda here: http://bit.ly/1J357lP

Tuesday

10:00 a.m.: The full Health IT Standards Committee (#HITSC) meets. Find the agenda here: http://bit.ly/1OiXoqT

Friday

12:00 p.m.: The New Barriers to Interoperability Task Force meets. Find the agenda here: http://bit.ly/1XTyHVV