Moves with big potential

It was a relatively quiet stretch for health IT compared to recent weeks but interesting nonetheless.

In response to widespread charges that Epic has been hindering interoperability, the EHR giant is preparing the launch of an app store for third-party developers to build add-ons for its core products.

According to the Wisconsin State Journal, the store will be called App Exchange. Could this be the right move for greater interoperability?

In yet another move that emphasizes the importance of data and analytics, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy has named DJ Patil, PhD, as deputy chief technology officer for data policy and chief data scientist.

"We’ve begun to see an acceleration of the power of data to deliver value," wrote Megan Smith, U.S. chief technology officer wrote in a White House blog post announcing the position.

Patil has held positions at several large companies and worked at the Department of Defense, where he directed new efforts to bridge computational and social sciences in fields like social network analysis to help anticipate emerging threats to the United States.

In his new role, Patil will help shape policies and practices to help the U.S. remain a leader in technology and innovation, foster partnerships to help responsibly maximize the nation’s return on its investment in data, and help to recruit and retain the best minds in data science to join us in serving the public, according to Smith's post.

He also will work on the administration’s Precision Medicine Initiative, which focuses on utilizing advances in data and healthcare to provide clinicians with new tools, knowledge and therapies to select which treatments will work best for which patients, while protecting patient privacy.

Both moves have big potential.

Beth Walsh

Clinical Innovation + Technology editor