During the April 8 Health IT Policy Committee, the co-chairs of the new Accountable Care Work Group detailed their outlook for the committee and its goals.

The ECRI Institute Patient Safety Organization has launched The Partnership for Promoting Health IT Patient Safety, a multi-stakeholder group that seeks to generate new knowledge on safe health IT practices.

More than one million patients in Oregon and Southwest Washington will have electronic access to provider notes in their EHRs as part of a collaboration between nine health systems and medical groups and We Can Do Better, a nonprofit committed to practicing open notes.

Interoperability continues to be a work in progress which was evident at the recent the State Health IT Connect Summit.

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT has renewed its cooperative agreement contract with DirectTrust, a nonprofit trade alliance that promotes the Direct Protocol, for an additional year.

The Health IT Policy Committee formally endorsed best practices regarding the Meaningful Use Stage 2 requirement to allow patients to view, download and transmit their personal health information to family, friends and personal representatives of adult patients.

Insurer Independence Blue Cross (Independence) and integrated care management company DaVita HealthCare Partners have jointly formed a new company, Tandigm Health, to deliver high-quality care at a lower cost in the Philadelphia area, a region with some of the highest healthcare costs in the nation.

BOSTON—Boston Children’s Hospital hosted its first Innovators’ Showcase on Friday, April 4, during which innovators shared their ideas and efforts to address a wide range of medical issues.