A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention-funded pilot project is using telemedicine, and a clinical quality improvement structure designed by the ONC and the American Medical Association, to improve diagnosis and treatment of hepatitis C in rural areas.
The program, called Project ECHO, features weekly videoconferencing sessions that allow primary care physicians in rural Arizona and Utah to consult with specialists and present patient cases.
To build on this information exchange, the ONC and the AMA are developing clinical quality measures for hepatitis C testing and will bring them into patient care through the development of clinical decision support tools.
Participating providers will also connect to public health databases and other clinical data systems to monitor the success of the program and expand interventions to larger swaths of the population.
More Articles on the ONC:
Health IT Coalition Takes Aim at EHR Vendors It Says Are Blocking Interoperability Efforts
ONC’s Chief Privacy Officer Resigns
7 Recently Launched mHealth Apps