ONC Report to Congress on Health IT Progress

VindellWashingtonMD-200The ONC released their annual report to Congress this month: 2016 Report to Congress on Health IT Progress: Examining the HITECH Era and the Future of Health IT. This annual report was submitted pursuant to Section 3001(c)(6) of the Public Health Service Act and section 13113(a) of the HITECH Act.

Findings include that all are benefiting from health IT. Adoption for hospitals is now 96% up from 9% in 2008. Practices are now at 75% adoption rate. The message to congress was there has been “great strides in a relatively short amount of time.”

Priorities moving forward

  1. Common technical standards for HIE.
  2. Changing business drivers that allow and support the flow of information.
  3. Change the culture around HIE with patients and providersONC

You can hear Dr. Vindell Washington, National Coordinator for the ONC on a recent episode of Conversations on Health Care with hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter (@chcradio) discussing the report and the ONC.