News

Summaries of open source, health care, or health IT news and information from various sources on the web selected by Open Health News (OHNews) staff. Links are provided to the original news or information source, e.g. news article, web site, journal,blog, video, etc.

See the following -

ONC Challenges State HIE Grantees to Increase Consumer Data Access

Ken Terry | Fierce Health IT | April 14, 2012

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... Read More »

ONC Chief Urges Vendors To Go For Blue Button ASAP

Mary Mosquera | Healthcare IT News | September 12, 2012

Farzad Mostashari, MD, the national health IT coordinator, has challenged vendors to make it easy for consumers by early 2013 to view, download and transmit to another party their health information in the form of a Blue Button feature. Read More »

ONC Chief's Early Years Inform Her Work

Anthony Brino | Healthcare IT News | January 16, 2014

Karen DeSalvo, MD, has stepped into the role of national coordinator for healthcare information technology at a time when American healthcare is in a state of unprecedented change. Read More »

ONC Contest Seeks Designers With A Flair For Blue Button

Mary Mosquera | Government Health IT | October 22, 2012

The Blue Button feature for patients to download and use their health information is a capability that is becoming available outside of federal health systems, and the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT wants developers to help improve the design to make the medical record more usable and meaningful to patients and their caregivers. Read More »

ONC Continues Blue Button Push With Video Contest

Mary Mosquera | Healthcare IT News | October 3, 2012

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT launched its Blue Button video competition Oct. 1 to create awareness of consumers having easy online access to their health information, and to motivate them in how they might use it. Read More »

ONC Continues Push For Blue Button During National HIT Week

Kyle Murphy, PhD | EHR Intelligence | September 16, 2013

Patient engagement is an important new requirement for Stage 2 Meaningful Use, and it’s a potential stumbling block for eligible hospitals and professionals failing to exceed the five-percent threshold required on this during this next phase of the EHR Incentive Programs.

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ONC Continues Push For Blue Button During National HIT Week

Kyle Murphy | EHR Intelligence | September 16, 2013

Patient engagement is an important new requirement for Stage 2 Meaningful Use, and it’s a potential stumbling block for eligible hospitals and professionals failing to exceed the five-percent threshold required on this during this next phase of the EHR Incentive Programs. Read More »

ONC Data Underscores Interoperability Challenges for Small, Rural Hospitals

Chris Nerney | HIE Watch | September 12, 2016

The latest data brief from the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) shows genuine progress among U.S. hospitals in the electronic sharing of patient records, as HIE Watch reported Thursday. But ONC’s July data brief also makes clear that whether a hospital is capable of electronic record sharing depends in large part on its size and location...

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ONC Delays Launch Of Blue Button Connector Until Late February

Neil Versel | MobiHealthNews | January 15, 2014

The US Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) for Health IT is slowing its rollout launch of a website meant to encourage patients to take a more active role in their own care. Read More »

ONC Design Challenge: 'Humanize' Electronic Health Records

Michelle McNickle | InformationWeek | November 9, 2012

The Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) and the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) are asking graphic designers to help them put a new patient-friendly spin on printed Blue Button records. The VA's Blue Button initiative lets users log in to a website and view, download and share their health records. Read More »

ONC Details Plan to Improve Data Standards, Big Data Analytics

Sara Heath | Health IT Analytics | May 17, 2016

ONC has proposed several pieces of legislation promoting better and more effective data standards for health information exchange, which would help to support the use of healthcare big data analytics to improve patient care. According to a recent blog post published by ONC’s Karen Desalvo and Lisa Lewis, the agency has proposed several pieces of legislation in an effort to keep pace with the quick evolution of healthcare IT...

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ONC Drops Pursuit Of NwHIN Governance

Mary Mosquera | Government Health IT | September 10, 2012

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT has dropped pursuit of a regulation for establishing “rules of the road” for the nationwide health information network (NwHIN) based on feedback it has received. Read More »

ONC Expanding Blue Button Capabilities

Sean McCalley | Federal News Radio | October 24, 2012

The Blue Button initiative has already let more than one-million veterans and active-duty troops download their personal health records. But the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information (ONC) has a larger audience in mind. Read More »

ONC HIE Framework A Guide And 'Living Document'

Anthony Brino | Government Health IT | May 3, 2013

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT has published a governance framework for health information exchange aimed at helping HIEs and other health organizations “align their work with national priorities.” Read More »

ONC Holds A Key To The Structural Deficit

Adrian Gropper | The Health Care Blog | April 7, 2013

It’s called Blue Button+ and it works by giving physicians and patients the power to drive change. Read More »