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• National Initiatives

National Initiatives

There is currently a great deal of activity on the national level to promote EHR interoperability and standardization. Some of these initiatives are listed below.

Health IT
An overview of Health Information Technology efforts throughout the federal government.

Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC)
This office at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, led by Robert Kolodner, M.D., “provides leadership for the development and nationwide implementation of an interoperable health information technology infrastructure to improve the quality and efficiency of health care and the ability of consumers to manage their care and safety.” It is funding and directing several initiatives.

American Health Information Community (AHIC)
This advisory commission, made up of key healthcare stakeholders, provides input and recommendation directly to the Secretary of Health and Human Services. Many of the ONC initiatives report directly to AHIC.

Health Information Technology Standards Panel (HITSP)
The mission of this ONC contract awardee is “to serve as a cooperative partnership between the public and private sectors for the purpose of achieving a widely accepted and useful set of standards specifically to enable and support widespread interoperability among healthcare software applications, as they will interact in a local, regional and national health information network for the United States. APA is a voting member of HITSP.

Certification Commission for Health Information Technology (CCHIT)
The mission of this ONC contract awardee is “to accelerate the adoption of robust, interoperable HIT [Health Information Technology] throughout the US healthcare system, by creating an efficient, credible, sustainable mechanism for the certification of HIT products.”

National Health Information Network (NHIN) Prototypes
The ONC has awarded 4 contracts for the development of National Health Information Network prototypes. It is expected that the best features of these 4 prototypes will be combined for future NHIN development.

Health Information Security and Privacy Collaboration (HISPC)
This ONC contract awardee is charged with “implementing a process to facilitate the assessment of variation in business policies and practices regarding the privacy and security of health information exchange by individual states and territories. The goal is to develop a process that will allow states to identify and resolve barriers to health information exchange on a nationwide basis.”

Commission on Systemic Interoperability: Ending the Document Game Report
Final report of the federally charged CSI commission, which was charged with “developing a strategy to make healthcare information instantly accessible at all times, by consumers and their healthcare providers."