Hall Render - Health Information Technology

Health IT Dashboard

Alisa C. Kuehn — Wed, 09 May 2012 16:26:17 +0000

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) launched the Health IT Dashboard today. The Health IT Dashboard has been established to present key information about the strategy of ONC, its health care innovation grants programs, and available research data tracking the nationwide adoption of health care IT. The Health IT Dashboard has summary of information about all ONC grant programs, and detailed presentations of performance data for the Health IT Regional Extension Centers and Community College Consortia to Educate Health IT Professionals programs. It also includes over 150 maps presenting ONC data at State, County, and Grantee geographic boundaries.

In June, ONC researchers and the ONC State Health Information Exchange Program will publish an electronic health record (EHR) and health information exchange (HIE) dashboard including more state-level maps, charts, and data sets that describe trends in physician and hospital utilization of health IT.

To view the Health IT Dashboard, click here.

National eHealth Collaborative Program on HIE

Alisa C. Kuehn — Tue, 01 May 2012 14:43:18 +0000

The National eHealth Collaborative will host a 1 hour discussion with Claudia Williams, Director of the State HIE Program at ONC to discuss the recently released national HIE strategy. The discussion will take place tomorrow (May 2) at 3:30 PM EDT. The national HIE strategy can be viewed here. To register for the program click here.

Stage 2 Comments Are Due In 2 Weeks

Jeffrey W. Short — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 08:00:44 +0000

Comments to the Medicare and Medicaid Program; Electronic Health Record Incentive Program-Stage 2 Proposed Regulations are due in two weeks. If you wish to make comments to these proposed regulations, they must be submitted no later than 5:00 p.m. on May 7. Comments can be submitted electronically at www.regulations.gov. You can also submit written comment by mail, overnight mail, or hand deliver at the addresses set forth in the first page of the proposed regulations. The proposed regulations can be downloaded here.

Comments to 2014 Edition of EHR Certification Standards are Due in 2 Weeks

Jeffrey W. Short — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 07:45:57 +0000

Comments to the Health Information Technology: Standards, Implementation Specifications, and Certification Criteria for Electronic Health Record Technology, 2014 Edition; Revisions to the Permanent Certification Program for Health Information Technology Proposed Regulations are due in two weeks. If you wish to make comments to these proposed regulations, they must be submitted no later than 5:00 p.m. on May 7. Comments can be submitted electronically at www.regulations.gov. You can also submit written comment by mail, overnight mail, or hand deliver at the addresses set forth in the first page of the proposed regulations. The proposed regulations can be downloaded here.

CMS Provides EHR Incentive Program Statistics

Jeffrey W. Short — Sat, 31 Mar 2012 12:08:56 +0000

CMS has released its statistics for the Medicare and Medicaid Electronic Health Record Incentive Program for activity from January 2011 through February 2012. Highlights of the report are:

Over 211,500 eligible professionals (EPs), eligible hospitals, and critical access hospitals (CAHs) have registered for the Medicare and/or Medicaid EHR Incentive Programs since January 2011;
Over 20,000 registered for the Medicare and/or Medicaid EHR Incentive Programs in the month of February;
Over 62,000 EPs, eligible hospitals, and CAHs have been paid for successfully participating in the Medicare and/or Medicaid EHR Incentive Programs;
Over $3.8 billion has been paid in Medicare and Medicaid EHR Incentive Program payments to EPs, eligible hospitals, and CAHs across the country; and
Over $738 million was paid in the month of February.

The complete report is available online by clicking here.

Health Information Exchange Roadmap: The Landscape and a Path Forward

Alisa C. Kuehn — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 19:11:30 +0000

On Monday, April 2, at 1:00 pm EDT, the National eHealth Collaborative will release the “Health Information Exchange Roadmap” with a webinar introducing the report. You can register here.

ONC Offers Health IT Teaching Materials

Alisa C. Kuehn — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 19:10:47 +0000

ONC has developed 20 curriculum components that are available at no cost that are designed around 6 mobile workforce roles (as described here). The components include slide-based lectures with audio narration and transcripts, learning activities, self assessment questions, and instructor manuals.

To set-up a profile and download the components, please click here.

CMS Hosts National Provider Call on EHR Incentive Programs

Alisa C. Kuehn — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 12:24:31 +0000

Later today (March 29 from 3 – 4 pm EDT), CMS will hold a national provider call to discuss EHR incentive program basics to eligible professionals. Registration for the call closes today at 12 pm. To register, go here.

Opinions about Mobile Device Privacy and Security due to ONC by March 30, 2012

Alisa C. Kuehn — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 12:22:44 +0000

The public comment period regarding securing health information while using mobile devices ends on March 30, 2012. Information regarding ONC’s Mobile Device Roundtable discussion and a link to provide comments can be found here.

U.S. Supreme Court decides Mayo v. Prometheus

Spencer P. Goodson — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 13:39:29 +0000

The U.S. Supreme Court handed down its opinion yesterday in the case of Mayo Collaborative Servs., dba Mayo Med. Labs., et al. v. Prometheus Labs., Inc. (No. 10-1150) (March 20, 2012) (see PDF here). The Court reversed the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit and held that the patent claims at issue merely set forth laws of nature and were not, therefore, patentable subject matter under 35 U.S.C. § 101.

At issue in this case were Prometheus’ patent claims setting forth methods of using thiopurine drugs (as opposed to the drugs themselves) in the treatment of autoimmune diseases by causing a patient to ingest thiopurine drugs and then adjusting treatment based upon correlations between certain metabolite levels appearing in the patient’s blood and the efficacy and toxicity of the drugs. The Court decided that the Prometheus’ claims did not add enough over and above its mere statements of the correlations. In other words, the Court believed that the patent inappropriately attempted to claim laws of nature, as opposed to processes applying such laws of nature.