What’s Happening at the ONC – 10-19-2018

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Posted By: Roberta Mullin October 19, 2018

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

ONC and OCR Bolster the Security Risk Assessment (SRA) Tool with New Features and Improved Functionality
The ONC and the OCR have updated the popular Security Risk Assessment (SRA) Tool to make it easier to use and apply more broadly to the risks to health information. The tool is designed for use by small to medium sized health care practices – those with one to 10 health care providers – covered entities, and business associates to help them identify risks and vulnerabilities to ePHI. The updated tool provides enhanced functionality to document how such organizations can implement or plan to implement appropriate security measures to protect ePHI.

The National Coordinator for Health IT, Dr. Don Rucker, to Keynote The Sequoia Project’s Annual Meeting
The Sequoia Project (@sequoiaproject) announced its annual meeting will be held on October 25, 2018 at the Gaylord Hotel right outside of Washington D.C. in National Harbor, Maryland. The event will be headlined by Dr. Don Rucker, the National Coordinator for Health IT, who will provide insight into the state of health IT interoperability and health data sharing across the country.

Are you Up for the Challenge? One ONC Challenge Still Open
There is still time to enter the remaining ONC challenge, the deadline is October 31st:

CHPL Data Challenge – This challenge is a call for developers, researchers, and innovators to develop a software application that makes use of the data in the CHPL application programming interfaces (API) or XML files in novel ways. The application should provide solutions to challenges for health care providers, health care consumers, and the health IT community​. Total: $40,000 in prizes.

Application programming interfaces (APIs) and how they fit into the 21st Century Cures Act’s (Cures Act) implementation

ONC and NIST Transitions eRx Testing Tool to NCPDP
In 2017, ONC announced a 5-year goal to transition the ONC Health IT Certification Program’s testing portfolio to as many industry-developed and maintained testing tools as envisioned by the 21st Century Cures Act. Today, the ONC Health IT Certification Program’s approved electronic prescribing (eRx) testing tool and associated support and documentation transitioned from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) ePrescribing Test Suite to the National Council for Prescription Drug Programs (NCPDP). Learn more about the transition by reading: A New Home for the Electronic Prescribing Testing Tool.

Now Available: ONC’s 2nd Interoperability Forum Recording
Last month, over 1000+ in-person and virtual attendees participated in ONC’s 2nd Interoperability Forum. Watch experts from the public and private sector describe ways to advance nationwide interoperability, demo technology solutions, and identify ways to address interoperability barriers.
Video: ONC’s 2nd Interoperability Forum

Events

Health IT Advisory Committee Upcoming Meetings
The next Health IT Advisory Committee meeting will be held November 14, 2018.

SAVE THE DATE: ONC’s 2018 Annual Meeting
Mark your calendars! ONC’s 2018 Annual Meeting will be held November 29 and 30 in Washington, DC. ONC will share more information about the agenda, location, and hotel reservations in the coming weeks.

Spotlighting Interoperability Proving Ground Programs

The Interoperability Proving Ground (IPG) Spotlight project of the week is Moxe Health – Bi-directional EHR Integration – Convergence – Moxe’s Convergence platform integrates third-party analytics with EHRs. It provides a streamlined, integrated user-interface embedded within the EHR, allowing clinicians to act on analytic insights from third parties. Rather than navigating to an outside portal, Convergence powers real-time clinician response to suspected gaps related to risk adjustment, HEDIS scores and beyond, with a single-sign-on application and integrated UI.

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.