The HHS' Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality plans to host a competition in fall 2018 to encourage the integration of patient-reported outcomes data into EHRs, according to a Dec. 26 notice in the federal register.
The competition will invite IT developers to create user-friendly technical tools that enable patients to share data with clinicians and researchers. The tools should leverage health IT standards such as application programming interfaces, so data can be integrated into and shared with health IT systems regardless of a facility's EHR vendor.
The goal of the competition is to develop tools that enhance patient-provider communication and shared decision-making, according to the notice.
"The patient's perspective is central to healthcare decisions affecting prevention, diagnosis, treatment and long-term care," the notice reads. "[Patient-reported outcomes] offer a complementary perspective to that of clinician assessments, and may provide greater insights into health status, function, symptom burden, adherence, health behaviors and quality of life."