AMA comments on ONC vacancies

With several top names vacating the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC), the American Medical Association (AMA) took the opportunity to comment on the challenges facing interoperability and the future of the Meaningful Use program.

“The [AMA] understands that Karen DeSalvo is leaving her post as the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (health IT) to do important work in public health," said Robert M. Wah, MD, AMA president, in a statement. “DeSalvo’s departure, in addition to those of several other senior staff including the deputy director of the [ONC], Jacob Reider, which was also announced last week, leaves a significant leadership gap which could jeopardize the growing momentum around interoperability.

“Interoperability and data portability are critical components for transforming clinical practice and improving health outcomes. Evidence of that connection can be found in the administration’s new Transforming Clinical Practice Initiative, which supports coordinated care and collaboration among physicians that require high-performing technological systems. Unfortunately, physicians have been facing challenges with several poor performing EHRs that are not interoperable. Without widespread interoperability, the value proposition of EHRs has not been realized and the adoption of new innovative models of care has been hindered."

The association has been calling for more flexible Meaningful Use certification requirements "so that vendors have more freedom to innovate and tailor their products to meet physicians’ needs," said Wah. "We recently released a Meaningful Use Blueprint to outline ways to improve Stages 1 and 2 of the program and provide suggestions for Stage 3, as well as a framework outlining eight priorities for more usable EHRs.

“The AMA is committed to improving care for our patients and looks forward to continuing to work with ONC, and its sister agency the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, to achieve that goal.”