At an April 8 meeting of the Health IT Policy Committee, National Coordinator for Health IT Karen DeSalvo, MD, laid out a new organizational structure for the committee that offers insights into the ONC's areas of focus as HITECT Act grants begin to expire.
Dr. DeSalvo, the committee's chair, will oversee four distinct subgroups:
- Health IT Strategic Planning: This group will focus on fostering innovation, long-term strategy and evaluation of current programs.
- Advanced Health Models and Meaningful Use: This group will focus on advancing the adoption of clinical decision support, patient-reported outcomes, population management and other meaningful use objectives.
- Health IT Implementation, Usability and Safety: This group will issue product certifications and keep tabs on any safety issues.
- Interoperability and Health Information Exchange: This group will promote a business and regulatory environment that is conducive to HIEs and develop standards such as patient-matching protocol.
Working with these four subgroups will be two other expert groups, one focused on privacy and security and one on consumer engagement, ensuring these two areas remain a focus of the other workgroups.
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