ONC Challenges State HIE Grantees to Increase Consumer Data Access

In an expansion of its Consumer Pledge program, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC) has challenged grantees of ONC's state health information exchange program to increase consumers' access to their own health information. Participating states are being asked to make "concrete progress" in the six months to get healthcare data into consumers' hand so they can share it with family members and multiple providers, according to a recent post on ONC's Health IT Buzz blog.

ONC launched the Consumer Innovation Challenge with a meeting on March 20 in Chicago, according to the post. The meeting, which attracted HIE leaders, vendors of personal health records and consumer advocates, addressed such topics as technical architecture, privacy and security, patient outreach, and increasing the use of technological solutions like Blue Button downloads and Direct messaging...