What’s Happening at the ONC – 7-27-2018

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Posted By: Roberta Mullin July 27, 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

CHPL Data Challenge
ONC is launching the Certified Health IT Product List (CHPL) Data Challenge to develop a software application that makes use of the data in the CHPL application programming interfaces (API) or XML files. The proposed applications should support the healthcare and health IT communities’ use and understanding of certified health IT. A total of $40,000 in prizes will be available for award. Learn more about this challenge by reading the blog post, Certified Health IT Product List (CHPL) Data Challenge. Submission Deadline: October 31, 2018

2nd ONC Interoperability Forum
When: August 6-8
Where: Mayflower Hotel, 1127 Connecticut Ave NW, Washington, DC 20036

Follow: #InteropForum
Register for this event.

Expect stakeholders from industry and government to:

  • Learn about recent efforts to advance interoperability nationwide; and
  • Identify concrete actions that can be taken to respond to today’s interoperability challenges

The Forum will feature a mix of keynote speakers, demos, and opportunities to share and learn best practices.

HITAC Task Force Looking at Interoperability Standards Priorities
The first meeting of the Interoperability Standards Priorities Task Force (ISPTF) was held on Friday, July 20 at 2pm ET. The ISPTF is charged with making recommendations on priority uses of health information technology and the associated standards and implementation specifications that support such uses. It is also required to present these recommendations and an accompanying findings report to the full Health Information Technology Advisory Committee (HITAC). More information about this new Task Force and virtual meeting.

Leading Edge Acceleration Projects (LEAP) Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO)
The 21st Century Cures Act (Cures) directs ONC to improve the interoperability of health information, facilitate information exchange, address barriers to interoperability, and reduce clinician burden relative to EHRs. This funding opportunity will address well-documented and fast emerging challenges that inhibit the development, use, and/or advancement of well-designed, interoperable health IT. It is expected to further a new generation of health IT development and inform the innovative implementation and refinement of standards, methods, and techniques for overcoming major barriers and challenges as they are identified. Application Due Date is 8/17/2018.

2018 Interoperability Standards Advisory (ISA) Reference Edition – The Interoperability Standards Advisory (ISA), an interactive catalog of standards and implementation specifications supporting interoperability in healthcare, has been updated following the public review and comment period that ended on November 20, 2017. The 2018 ISA Reference Edition incorporates many of the comments received, and is intended to provide a “snapshot in time” view of the ISA for the new year. Additional changes and functionality improvements are planned for 2018, so be sure to visit the ISA throughout the year.

Spotlighting Interoperability Proving Ground Programs

The Interoperability Proving Ground (IPG) Spotlight project of the week is the Pediatric Antimicrobial Stewardship Guidelines at the Point of Care  from RxRevu in collaboration with Children’s Hospital Colorado. This project’s objective is to disseminate vital dosage and standard information to clinicians at the point of care rather than in annually distributed instructional manuals. By surfacing this information directly in the EHR in response to pediatric infections, clinicians will ideally be better able to administer antimicrobials in accordance with the most recent research updates.

Share your interoperability project by submitting a new project at the IPG or update the status of a project that had been posted within the last 90 days. Once a project is submitted or updated, it will be added to the queue to be randomly selected as a featured project. Learn more about the IPG Spotlight.

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.