HHS’s Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) released a draft Roadmap setting forth timelines for specific actions aimed at achieving interoperability of health care information. The Roadmap seeks to implement the “vision” expressed in the ONC’s June 2014 concept paper, “Connecting Health and Care for the Nation: A 10-Year Vision to Achieve an Interoperable Health IT Infrastructure.” The ONC’s Roadmap advises patients, providers (including hospitals, laboratories, pharmacies, and other providers), payers, government, and researchers on the steps necessary to ensure health care information is available and accessible to all involved in health care delivery. The ONC defines interoperability in the Roadmap as “the ability of a system to exchange electronic health information with and use electronic health information from other systems without special effort on the part of the user.” The objective is to make health care information electronically available and promote patients’ active involvement in their health care, well-informed decision making, and coordinated delivery of care. Covering a 10-year period, the Roadmap is subject to revision and will be updated every two years. Comments on the draft are due by April 3 and then ONC will issue a revised Roadmap. Getting the Right Information at…
