This month’s two day HIT Policy Committee meeting will take place on October 27 and 28. On the agenda are updates from the Information Exchange workgroup, the September Privacy hearing, and a review of meaningful use core objectives and existing measures. Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday morning will include the public hearing with moderated panels including, Registries and Quality Measures, Specialists, Smaller Providers (Physician Practices and Hospitals), and Underserved and Medicaid Providers. Meeting materials are posted and as always you can participate via webconference or teleconference.
The HIT Standards Committee’s newly formed Implementation Workgroup is holding a public hearing on the topic of Adoption Experiences on Thursday, October 29, 2009. There will be a series of panels to address the issue. For the big promise of bringing non health care industries to the table, this panel looks a little weak. But overall, it looks like Chopra will have a SRO hearing. This one might even get some Twitter action. The meeting agenda has been posted.
Next week, ONC is slated to submit its FY 2010 annual operating plan. And full applications for the HIT Regional Extension Centers grants are due November 3, 2009. The program provides grants for the establishment of Health Information Technology Regional Extension Centers that will offer technical assistance, guidance and information on best practices to support and accelerate health care providers’ efforts to become meaningful users of Electronic Health Records (EHRs). For more information go here.
Noted speaking engagements to look for; ONC David Blumenthal will be featured at CHIME09 Fall CIO Forum which begins on October 27th in Indian Wells, CA. David Hunt, MD, Chief Medical Officer, ONC will be the keynote speaker at the National Health IT Collaborative for the Underserved, HIT Resource Teach-In on October 29th in Atlanta.
Buzz Aldrin is kicking off the ASHHRA Conference in Chicago on November 1st. He is not one of our usual suspects, but his membership to the very exclusive “Men on the Moon Club” and the 40th Anniversary of his walk make it enough for me to report it. And while we are on the subject of exclusive men’s clubs, President Bill Clinton will be participating in WHITv5.0 this year in Alexandria VA. Also at the 5th Annual World Healthcare Innovation & Technology Congress will be the first ONC David J. Brailer, MD, PhD and Vice Chair of the HIT Policy Committee, Paul C. Tang, MD, MS.
Have a good week!
