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The ONC Annual Meeting concluded on day 2 as they continued discussing their theme, Interoperable Health IT for a Healthy Nation. If you didn’t attend the meeting, check out the webcast.
The biggest news coming out of the meeting were new funding opportunities announced. The three opportunities total approximately $36 million and are to “demonstrate HHS and ONC’s commitment to making the vision of interoperability described in the Shared Nationwide Interoperability Roadmap a reality.” More information will be available in the coming weeks.
First was the new HIE Grant Funding Opportunity announced by HHS Secretary Sylvia M. Burwell.
Advance Interoperable Health Information Technology Services to Support Health Information Exchange
This two-year grant program will support 10 to 12 states, territories, or state designated entities that leverage investments and lessons learned to advance the standardized, secure, and interoperable movement of health information across organizations, vendors, and geographic boundaries. A total of $28 million will be made available through this ONC program. Organizations will be required to network and share information.
Next was ONC DeSalvo announcing two more funding opportunities.
Community Health Peer Learning Program FOA
The new Community Health Peer Learning Program will bring communities together to work in partnership with national experts, local technical experts, consumers, stakeholders, and ONC to facilitate shared community learning and problem solving through a collaborative learning program. Participant communities will be required to identify an impactful, measureable, and actionable work plan to improve the use of health information to achieve community and population health. Community Health Peer Learning Program participants will identify data solutions, accelerate local progress, disseminate best practices and learning guides, and help inform national strategy around population health challenges.
Workforce Training Program FOA
Interested in training health care workers on topics like population health, care coordination, payment models that support new care delivery and payment Models, and Value Based Care? This program improves on the need to educate and cross-train individuals pursuing careers in health IT. This program will update training materials from the original Workforce Curriculum Development Program and train health care workers to use new health information technologies in a variety of settings: team-based care environment, long-term care facilities, patient-centered medical homes, accountable care organizations, hospitals and clinics.
You can read more reports on the meeting in these articles.
- Healthcare Informatics – ONC Annual Meeting: Federal Leaders Are Ready for Interoperability Action, by Rajiv Leventhal and David Raths
- Health Data Management – Interoperability Takes Center Stage at ONC Annual Meeting, by Greg Slabodkin
- Medscape – ONC Officials Detail EHR Data-Sharing Goals, by Alicia Ault
- AJMC – ONC Announces $28 Million in Grant Funding to Achieve Interoperability, by Laura Joszt
- MedPage Today – Patients Themselves the Next Data Frontier, by Joyce Frieden
- TechTarget – ONC Annual Meeting turns from meaningful use to larger goals, by Shaun Sutner