NASCIO: States march onward toward IT adoption
States have experienced expeditious growth in the adoption of health IT during the past year, according to a report by the National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO).
As government leaders increasingly support health IT as a means to improve patient care and reduce costs, it is increasingly imperative that states implement an enterprisewide architecture for the statewide exchange of health information, Lexington, Ky.-based NASCIO stated. Providing a cross-section snapshot of how states are adopting IT, the report stated that state CIOs and government leaders recognize the importance of state-driven health IT efforts.
There has been a tremendous flurry of activity in the wake of the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC) announcements of the recipients of the State HIE Cooperative Agreement Program, according to NASCIO’s report. Funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 has started to be dispensed to state and regional efforts across the U.S., and will be used to invest, solidify and make sustainable health IT efforts in the states, the report stated.
NASCIO suggested that a state HIE should develop from a few guiding principles that, regardless of the governance model, state CIOs can provide during the planning and implementation phases:
"The massive influx of federal dollars provides the states with an unprecedented opportunity to implement [an] HIE, but fulfillment of this goal is going to require the ingenuity of the states, state CIOs and stakeholders to make HIE a sustainable reality,” the report concluded.
The publication is available for download on NASCIO’s website here.
As government leaders increasingly support health IT as a means to improve patient care and reduce costs, it is increasingly imperative that states implement an enterprisewide architecture for the statewide exchange of health information, Lexington, Ky.-based NASCIO stated. Providing a cross-section snapshot of how states are adopting IT, the report stated that state CIOs and government leaders recognize the importance of state-driven health IT efforts.
There has been a tremendous flurry of activity in the wake of the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC) announcements of the recipients of the State HIE Cooperative Agreement Program, according to NASCIO’s report. Funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 has started to be dispensed to state and regional efforts across the U.S., and will be used to invest, solidify and make sustainable health IT efforts in the states, the report stated.
NASCIO suggested that a state HIE should develop from a few guiding principles that, regardless of the governance model, state CIOs can provide during the planning and implementation phases:
- An effective statewide HIE will be able to securely integrate data and make it accessible in a federated model;
- Secure and standardized sharing of data is essential to implementing an efficient and dependable HIE;
- A statewide HIE's primary purpose is to share clinical data from different sources and make them interoperable with the Nationwide Health Information Network standards; and
- Although an HIE may mature and include eligibility, biosurveillance, claims data, reporting and provide communication functions, it is essential to focus on making the HIE compatible with clinical use.
"The massive influx of federal dollars provides the states with an unprecedented opportunity to implement [an] HIE, but fulfillment of this goal is going to require the ingenuity of the states, state CIOs and stakeholders to make HIE a sustainable reality,” the report concluded.
The publication is available for download on NASCIO’s website here.