Weekly roundup: Smorgasbord of developments

This week offered a wide range of advances and developments for a smorgasbord with something for everyone.

If you want to know more about the efforts and perspective of the Office of the National Coordinator of Health IT, the office’s chief scientist, Doug Fridsma, hosted its first Google+ Hangout. He discussed the office’s main activities and plans for continuing to transform healthcare with IT. These efforts can’t happen in a big bang fashion, he said, but incrementally, so “we can learn from each step. Our job is to enable others to achieve success and take an approach that allows for heterogeneity. It’s challenging because different organizations are in different stages of maturity in being able to exchange information.”

The office is mindful of the best way to move forward with various initiatives, Fridsma said. “When we’re thinking about moving forward with a particular initiative, it may not be perfect but does it represent the best we have so far? We cannot let perfect be the enemy of good.” Interoperability is not a one-size-fits-all concept. “We want to create modular standards and specifications that allow for innovation.”

If you were wondering how the burgeoning accountable care effort is progressing, this week brought the announcement that the National Association of Accountable Care Organizations (NAACOS) has been established. More than 60 ACOs from more than 15 states will nationally seek to allow ACOs to work together to increase quality of care, lower costs and improve the health of their communities.

If you were wondering what’s new regarding Meaningful Use, you might be interested to know that the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) is offering grants of up to $250,000 for fast-track research that will provide evidence to inform policymakers in development of Stage 3 EHR objectives.

“Given the current state of development, AHRQ is only interested in supporting applications that propose projects that can begin in September 2013, and which will disseminate results before June 2014,” according the funding notice.

The AHRQ seeks projects that evaluate implementation of proposed Stage 3 objectives in primary care practices and hospitals. In particular, strategies are sought for improving objectives at the policy level, incorporating EHR innovations that support meeting the objectives, and ways for providers to increase the value of MU objectives. The projects must include engagement of MU-eligible practices or hospitals in evaluating one or more proposed Stage 3 objectives.

Other developments include an update on the rate of data breaches, ICD-10 readiness, the government's effort to fight healthcare fraud and more. Are all of these small changes starting to add up for your organization?

Beth Walsh

Clinical Innovation + Technology editor