Is ONC's interoperability vision enough?
Interoperability has been a top priority for everyone in health IT and the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC) shared its vision for nationwide interoperability over the next 10 years.
“We have heard loudly and clearly that interoperability is a national priority,” said National Health IT Coordinator Karen DeSalvo, MD, MPH, MSc, in a blog post on the new 13-page report. “We also see that there is a tremendous opportunity to move swiftly now. Clinicians are ready for data to enable and inform care and improve their efficiency. Innovators are stretching our imagination on ways to collect and appropriately use data to improve health. And evolving technology is providing us with promising new ways to achieve interoperability.”
ONC will focus on five building blocks and develop use cases and goals for three, six and 10-year timeframes for each.
DeSalvo also defined interoperability as: allowing individuals and care providers to securely search, retrieve, send and receive essential, electronic health information; having a sustainable, equitable governance structure that is flexible and resilient; supporting novel data sharing and analysis, including patient-generated data and data from other sources beyond the healthcare delivery system; and reflecting many of the values and concepts in the JASON report, “A Robust Health Information Technology Infrastructure.”
What do you think? Is this the push the interoperability effort needs?
Beth Walsh
Clinical Innovation + Technology editor
Editor
Editor Beth earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism and master’s in health communication. She has worked in hospital, academic and publishing settings over the past 20 years. Beth joined TriMed in 2005, as editor of CMIO and Clinical Innovation + Technology. When not covering all things related to health IT, she spends time with her husband and three children.