ONC Invests in Innovation

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Posted By: Roberta Mullin June 14, 2011

ONC Check Up – 6/14/11

Here’s what been happening over at the ONC.

HHS and ONC announced on June 8th a new Investing in Innovation (i2) Initiative. This bold new program is hoping to spur innovations in health IT with prizes and competitions. The first of its kind, this Administration wide program using competition to advance an agency’s mission. This all comes from the America COMPETES Reauthorization Act of 2010. ONC has awarded close to $5 million the Capital Consulting Corporation and Health 2.0. The awards are to fund projects supporting innovations in research encouraging health IT development.

ONC awarded $6 million to develop health IT based competency exams. The April award was a two-year cooperative agreement to North Virginia Community College. The six Health IT Professional exams, aligned with the roles and training provided by the Community College Consortia, will each consist of 125 multiple-choice questions to be completed in three hours. Exam topics include:

  • Clinician/Practitioner Consultant
  • Implementation Manager
  • Implementation Support Specialist
  • Practice Workflow & Information Management Redesign Specialist
  • Technical/Software Support Staff
  • Trainer

For full details on the exams visit the HIT Pro web site.

The Standards Implementation Workgroup is seeking comments for three more days. The 30 day comment period ends on June 17th. Now that it has been a year for certifing EHR technology, the workgroup is collecting feedback on the progress of the EHR product certification program. Included in the processes are, establishing the ONC-ATCBs, communicating the testing and certification criteria, and testing and certifying EHR technology. After analysis of the comments the workgroup will make recommendations to the Standards Committee on the the EHR Certification Program for Stage 2 Meaningful Use. Read more and submit your comments.

Have you seen the new look of the HIT BUZZ? Check it out.  You can also get updates on all the ONC programs on the site too. And coming soon is HealthIT.gov.  The ONC is marketing it as a new web site to preview their new campaign:  “Putting the I in Health IT”.

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