The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology came armed to the 2016 HIMSS conference with news. But what really got people's attentions?
The top tidbit obviously came from Secretary for Health and Human Services Sylvia Burwell, who announced that the 17 health care IT providers responsible for providing 90 percent of electronic health records in hospitals — including Cerner, Intel and GE Healthcare — have agreed to promote interoperability with 16 health care providers in sharing EHR information. The collaboration aims to open data to patients and develop standards for data sharing.
But Acting Assistant Secretary for Health Karen DeSalvo also grabbed some headlines by announcing a series of initiatives and updates at the conference in Las Vegas. Here's a look at the top five:
1. The certification rule
DeSalvo's big announcement was a proposed rule change to allow ONC to take a broader role in certifying EHR systems to meet interoperability standards. The proposed rule would allow ONC to weigh in on direct review of products, provide enhanced oversight of IT testing bodies, and increase accountability and transparency.
"This is really a partnership with the private sector where they can innovate and pull technology forward on behalf of consumers," DeSalvo said. "We would like to see change happen as rapidly as possible, but also as safely and securely as possible."
2. New grant programs
If the proposed certification rule was the vegetables for interoperability success, a selection of new ONC grant programs was the candy.
DeSalvo debuted three new grant packages that will promote app and open-source development. Two of the grants offered prizes worth $175,000 a piece to develop an app focused on consumer use and one for provider use.
The grants package also includes $275,000 in competitive funding to set up an iTunes-type open-source site to publish new apps that providers can discover.
3. Regulations vs. innovation
The conference also provided ONC's new principal deputy national coordinator, Vindell Washington, to talk about the office's efforts to strike a balance between providing consistent standards and encouraging innovation.
"I think one of the things that has become very clear is the synergy [between health care leaders and vendors] is there, the drive is there and the approach we are taking — that approach being more concentrated on drawing the lines on the road through which we will sort of drive as a health care system, but not really being really being prescriptive about getting from here to our destiny is one of our key factors."
4. Privacy and interoperability
While sharing patient data is the ultimate goal, ensuring that it is secure across health IT systems is paramount. Achieving both goals has brought attention to the communication problems of understanding where HIPPA comes into data sharing.
To alleviate the issue of data blocking as a result of conflicting HIPPA interpretations, ONC Chief Privacy Officer Lucia Savage said the office has been refreshing those interpretations with new fact sheets and information for physicians and stakeholders on how to be in line with the privacy law so patients can take command of their data.
"I don't think anyone of us wants a system where a patient in a health crisis has to check their privacy settings to make sure the data is going to show up where it needs to go," she said. "That is in fact how HIPPA is designed, it's designed to have a lot of data moving to make the ordinary part of the health care system just run."
As far as cybersecurity, Savage said HHS will continue its work on standing up the Health Care Industry Cybersecurity Task Force, a group tasked in the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act of 2015 to help drive the secure protection of health care information.
Tom Mason, ONC's chief medical officer, also said efforts were underway to update the model privacy notice so it can better apply to the wide-ranging health care industry and provide patients with a more transparent explanation of how their data is used.
"The original MPN was focused on personal health records, which was the emerging technology at the time," he said. "We now plan to update the MPN to make it applicable to the diverse market in consumer health technologies."
ONC released an RFI on updating the MPN on Feb. 26 to request comments.
5. Patient-generated health data
Sherilyn Pruitt, ONC's new director of the Office of Programs and Engagement, said ONC was working on a new policy to identify best practices for patient-generated health data.
"The policy framework will consider how PGHD can be collected in a way that protects patient and the integrity of the record, maximizes the provider-patient relationship, builds confidence among the providers and researchers to use the data and also encourages individuals to donate the data to third parties for research."
