What’s Happening at the ONC – 10-09-20

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Posted By: HHS/ONC/CMS Communications October 9, 2020

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) is at the forefront of the administration’s health IT efforts and is a resource to the entire health system to support the adoption of health information technology and the promotion of nationwide health information exchange to improve health care. ONC is organizationally located within the Office of the Secretary for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Here is what they are doing and reporting. Follow them @ONC_HealthIT. Sign up for their email updates.

News

NEW: USCDI ONDEC Submission Period Extended & Updated Prep Sheet Available
ONC extended the deadline for USCDI ONDEC submissions to October 23, 2020 at 11:59 PM ET. Additionally, ONC released an updated USCDI ONDEC Prep Sheet to assist stakeholders in preparing more complete submissions for new USCDI data elements and classes, and provide insight into ONC’s evaluation criteria for the level classification of submissions. The prep sheet now includes more detailed descriptions and samples for submission form questions. Learn more.

ISA & SVAP Comment Periods Open Through November 9
ONC is providing more opportunities to submit feedback and input into standards and interoperability efforts this summer. ONC recently launched the inaugural Standards Version Advancement Process (SVAP) comment period, alongside the annual Interoperability Standards Advisory (ISA) review and comment period. Submit feedback by November 9 at 11:59 PM ET. Learn More.

ONC Announces STAR HIE Awardees
Recently ONC announced the awardees of the Strengthening Technical Advancement and Readiness of Public Health Agencies via Health Information Exchange (STAR HIE) program. STAR HIE supports state and local public health agencies in their efforts to respond to public health emergencies, including disasters and pandemics such as COVID-19, by building innovative health information exchange services. The STAR HIE program aims to improve HIE services so that public health agencies can better access, share, and use health information during public health emergencies. Learn more.

New Award Announced to Track Use and Impact of Health IT on U.S. Office-based Physicians
ONC also launched an initiative to measure the use and impacts of health IT among a nationally representative sample of U.S. office-based physicians to guide future policy decisions. ONC expects the data will help identify disparities or unintended consequences due to the use of health IT and assess the impacts of federal health IT policies. Learn more.

LEAPing into Action: New Awards Ignite Health IT for Research and Care
ONC recently announced the latest awards under its Leading Edge Acceleration Projects (LEAP) in Health IT funding opportunity, which supports innovation to address emerging challenges and advance the development and use of interoperable health IT. These projects tackle creation of new standards, methods, and tools, such as application programing interfaces and mobile apps, to improve care delivery and advance research capabilities. Read about the awardees.

Updates to the SRA Tool
ONC, in partnership with the HHS Office for Civil Rights (OCR) recently released an update to the HHS Security Risk Assessment (SRA) Tool. This tool provides support for small- and medium-sized health care organizations in their efforts to assess security risks. This enhanced version of the SRA Tool includes a variety of new features like improved navigation throughout the assessment sections, export options for reports, and enhanced user interface scaling. Download SRA Tool.

Health IT Playbook

New Resources to Address the Privacy and Security of Health Data Used in Research
ONC has released the final report of the Privacy and Security Framework for Patient-Centered Outcomes Research (PCOR) project. The report highlights a framework and resources that support the responsible use of health data for PCOR. Learn more about how these resources can support stakeholders as they navigate the complexities of sharing health data for research and better protect patient data in the final report. Read the Final Report.

ONC’s 21st Century Cures Act Rule Effective
As of June 30, 2020, ONC’s 21st Century Cures Act Final Rule is effective. Please visit 21st Century Cures Act: Interoperability, Information Blocking, and the ONC Health IT Certification Program, for detailed information about the rule.

ONC’s Cures Act Final Rule Webinars & Resources
ONC recently completed a series of question-and-answer webinars on ONC’s Cures Act Final Rule. All webinars were recorded. Visit the Cures Rule website to view all the webinar recordings, slide presentations, and resources about the Final Rule.

Reminder: 2014 Edition Retired
ONC’s 21st Century Cures Act Final Rule retires the 2014 Edition from ONC’s Health IT Certification Program as of the rule effective date, June 30, 2020. This includes all 2014 Edition certification criteria and related standards, terms, and requirements, which will be removed from the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR). Visit HealthIT.gov for additional guidance.

Please note: any developers who were only certified to the 2014 Edition and had not yet updated to the 2015 Edition prior to June 30, 2020, are no longer considered active under ONC’s Health IT Certification Program.

New Data Brief Available
ONC released new data on the methods substance abuse treatment centers used to manage health information in 2017. More than half of centers nationwide used a combination of both electronic and paper methods to store and exchange client health information, and 3in 10 centers used only electronic methods. View the complete brief, Variation in Methods for Health Information Management among U.S. Substance Abuse Treatment Centers.

Using Real-World Data to Advance Patient-Centered Outcomes Research
ONC recently released the results from the Coordinated Registry Network for Women’s Health Technologies project, a collaborative effort to enable researchers to generate real-world evidence using data that address some women’s health issues. Coordinated registry networks (CRNs) enable research across clinical registries to study multiple interventions and play an important role in advancing patient-centered outcomes research. Read the final report to learn more about lessons learned from developing and testing the Women’s Health Technologies CRN FHIR® Implementation Guide.

New Recording Available
On June 1, ONC hosted a virtual working session to provide input and insight into existing challenges and promising innovations in patient identity and matching. The recording is now available.

New Infographic Available – What is the HITAC?
Learn about the Health Information Technology Advisory Committee (HITAC) through a recently released infographic showcasing the history and significant highlights of the HITAC to date. The HITAC is composed of 32 volunteers who make recommendations to the National Coordinator of Health IT regarding implementation of the 21st Century Cures Act. Those recommendations include ones related to implementation of the ONC Cures Act Final Rule and Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement.

Tools and Resources for the Health IT Community
To support HHS’s ongoing response efforts to the outbreak of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19), ONC is partnering with the CDC to direct the health IT community and healthcare providers to various resources for reporting and tracking of coronavirus disease or COVID-19. Visit HealthIT.gov for more.

Careers at ONC

Read

From the Health IT Buzz Blog – Learn more about HHS’s Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC). Check out the latest blog posts:

Key Takeaways from the ONC 2020 Annual Meeting
Did you miss the headlines from ONC’s 10th Annual Meeting? If so, they have compiled a list of the major themes from this year’s meeting. The event hosted more than 1,200 stakeholders and focused on the importance of patients’ access to health information, privacy concerns, health care cost transparency, health IT standards, and what these topics look like from different perspectives. All plenary sessions and keynote messages from the Annual Meeting are available via webcast. Presentations from breakout sessions will be available on HealthIT.gov soon.

Health IT Advisory Committee Task Forces
The Health IT Advisory Committee (HITAC) launched four task forces to review and provide recommendations on ONC’s proposed rule. The task forces include: Information Blocking, Conditions and Maintenance of Certification Requirements, Health IT for the Care Continuum and U.S. Core Data for Interoperability. The task forces are expected to conduct reviews and provide recommendations over the next two months. Follow the Task Forces

Advancing the Collection and Use of Patient-Reported Outcomes through Health Information Technology – Patient-reported outcome (PRO) measures can help improve patient care, but how do we standardize the exchange and integration of PRO data into health information technology? The Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC) developed and pilot-tested an implementation guide using Health Level Seven International® Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources®, which establishes the specification to support collecting, exchanging, and integrating PRO data in real time in healthcare settings. Read more about the PRO project in the final report.

ONC Has the Data
Close to 50 original data briefs that provide information about current topics in health IT are available on HealthIT.gov. These reports summarize national-level data analyses, providing readers with easy to understand graphics, key takeaways, and policy discussions. Check out ONC’s Data Briefs.

Health IT Advisory Committee Meeting
The next Health IT Advisory Committee Meeting will be held Wednesday, October 21, 2020.

Spotlighting Interoperability Proving Ground Programs

The Interoperability Proving Ground (IPG) is an open, community platform where you can share, learn, and be inspired by interoperability projects taking place across the nation. ONC is asking those working on COVID-19 interoperability projects to share your project on the IPG and tag it with #COVID-19. We’re reviewing every entry to identify opportunities for connection and collaboration among the community on these critical efforts.

The Interoperability Proving Ground (IPG) Spotlight project of the week is: A HIPAA Compliant, Interdisciplinary Collaboration Tool for Front-Line Clinicians: TrekIT – Created by clinicians for clinicians at Penn Medicine, TrekIT is a HIPAA compliant clinical workflow tool that was built to enable seamless team-based collaboration across every provider in every setting and requires no IT resources to deploy. To support the medical community during this time of extreme strain, we are offering TrekIT free of charge to our colleagues on the front-lines.

Learn how your interoperability project can be featured as an IPG Spotlight by visiting the Interoperability Proving Ground (IPG). Once a project is submitted or updated, projects will automatically be added to the feature queue to be randomly selected as a featured project.

ONC Interoperability Pledge

Companies that provide 90 percent of electronic health records used by hospitals nationwide as well as the top five largest health care systems in the country have agreed to implement three core commitments: Consumer Access, No Blocking/Ensuring Transparency, and Standards. The ONC (@ONC_HealthIT) wants vendors to sign a pledge. Is your vendor pledging? Find out who is on the list.