Federal agencies offer updates on TEFCA, interoperability milestones

Federal agencies offer updates on TEFCA, interoperability milestones

On February 13, the government leaders thanked the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT and six Qualified Health Information Networks (QHIN) for working to create a nationwide interoperability network under the 21st Century Cures Act. The ‘Network of Networks’ 
At the U.S. Department of Health and Human services, Secretary Xavier Becerra presented certificates of recognition to the CommonWell Health Alliance, eHealth Exchange, Epic TEFCA Interoperability Services, Health Gorilla, Kno2 and KONZA for moving into the pre-production testing process of the Trusted Exchange Framework and the Common Agreement.
With the framework, ONC and the Sequoia Project, TEFCA’s recognized coordinating entity, seek to establish…

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Epic, eHealth Exchange and CommonWell among HHS-approved QHIN candidates

Epic, eHealth Exchange and CommonWell among HHS-approved QHIN candidates

A half-dozen organizations on Monday were approved by the Department of Health and Human Services as the inaugural batch of candidates to participate as qualified health information networks as part of ONC’s Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement.During a Feb. 13 event at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, six healthcare organizations were approved to implement TEFCA as prospective QHINs: CommonWell Health Alliance, eHealth Exchange, Epic TEFCA Interoperability Services, Health Gorilla, Kno2, and KONZA National Network.
In a blog post, National Coordinator for Health IT Micky Tripathi recognized those organizations, “for their willingness to voluntarily step up and meet the…

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95% of Certified Health IT Developers Met ONC Cures Act Deadline

95% of Certified Health IT Developers Met ONC Cures Act Deadline

– More than 95 percent of certified health IT developers met the Cures Act Final Rule compliance deadline to provide customers with new technology, according to an ONC HealthITBuzz blog post. The Cures Act Final Rule mandated many changes to the Certification Program, including four updates set to have long-lasting interoperability impacts on patients, clinicians, and developers. ONC Certified Health IT developers must: Advance interoperability for patients and providers through the use of FHIR-based application programming interfaces (APIs);Enable patients, providers, and other stakeholders to have access to consistent data elements represented in at least version one of the United States Core…

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How Mental Healthcare Access can Improve to Meet Patient Needs

How Mental Healthcare Access can Improve to Meet Patient Needs

– Meeting patient needs for mental healthcare access will require industry leaders, clinicians, and healthcare policymakers to focus on giving clinicians the tools needed to meet patients in any care setting, as well as enable more ample access to mental healthcare providers, according to a new paper from the Alliance for Patient Access (AfPA). More patients than ever are seeking mental healthcare, with AfPA citing figures that 53 million Americans now live with some kind of mental illness. Exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, this prevalence of mental illness has pushed the mental health space to face unheard-of patient demand. But patients…

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2021 Tech Forum: Integrating SDOH Data Into Clinical Systems & Connecting with Human Services

2021 Tech Forum: Integrating SDOH Data Into Clinical Systems & Connecting with Human Services

September 10, 2021Providers are increasingly capturing SDOH data from patients as part of a clinical encounter and using this data to help inform clinical care delivery and to support social care referrals in the community. Existing and emerging health IT standards and codes sets specific to SDOH enable this data to be integrated into a care record and exchanged to support referrals aligned with an individuals’ social need(s). This session will outline technical workflows and use cases for integrating SDOH data into an EHR and as part of a shared care plan and will describe the applicable standards and codes sets…

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Regenstrief Institute names new president and CEO

Regenstrief Institute names new president and CEO

Indiana University School of Medicine this week announced that Rachel E. Patzer, an expert in epidemiology and health services research, has been appointed to be president and chief executive officer of the school-affiliated Regenstrief Institute.WHY IT MATTERSPatzer, who holds degrees including a masters in public health and a doctorate in epidemiology, will begin the new role on May 1. She currently works at Emory University School of Medicine, where she serves as the founding director of its Health Services Research Center and is a tenured professor there in the school’s department of surgery.
She founded the Health Services Research Center at Emory…

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