The Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC) should take its time to develop a carefully constructed governance mechanism for the Nationwide Health Information Network with support from all of healthcares stakeholders, according to the eHealth Initiatives response to an ONC request for information on the topic.

An informed patient is a healthy patient. Having access to personal health information (PHI) helps patients manage their health better, make informed decisions, improve their likelihood of positive outcomes and contributes to lowering system-wide healthcare costs. Despite the benefits and the capability in the form of personal health records (PHRs), barriers still prevent access to PHI, according to a June 3 policy brief from the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC).

To meet an expected rise in demand for health IT professionals as multiple federal initiatives encouraged hurried health IT adoption, the HITECH Act provided the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC) with approximately $2 billion to prepare a workforce for increasingly high-tech healthcare settings. Its been nothing but smooth sailing since the ONC instituted its Health IT Workforce Development Program, said the presenters of a July 11 National eHealth Collaborative webinar.

The American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) has included three conditions necessary for optimal use of Direct protocols in its comment letter to the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT in response to a request for information on governance of the Nationwide Health Information Network (NwHIN).

The Health Information Partnership for Tennessee (HIPTN) is closing shop. Three years after the organization was formed to orchestrate statewide health information exchange (HIE) efforts, the HIPTN board voted on June 15 after meeting with state officials to begin winding down operations.

In the longest natural history study of radiographic knee osteoarthritis (OA) to date, researchers demonstrated the annual rate at which women develop the condition is low, though if x-rays demonstrate possible osteophyte at baseline, knee OA was more likely to worsen, according to a study published in the July issue of Arthritis & Rheumatism.

From Maine rolling out a medical imaging archive to Ohio implementing an emergency department alert system to a study showing that the use of health information exchange (HIE) can curb unnecessary head CTs, HIE activity is chugging along at a brisk pace. In fact, the HIE market will experience massive growth in spending by 2014 even though industry technology executives are exploring adoption rather than implementation at this point, according to a new survey from Black Book Rankings.

Kaiser Permanente and the Social Security Administration (SSA) are launching a pilot program to exchange EHR information using the Nationwide Health Information Network.