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ONCHIT
Releases 2008-12 Strategic Plan
Health IT Strategist,
June 3, 2008 - HHS Office of the National Coordinator for Health
Information Technology in the next four years will focus on initiatives
that enhance access to electronic health information and enable
use of data to benefit public health needs through its 2008-12 strategic
plan.
The plan has two main
goals: enabling higher-quality, cost-efficient, patient-focused
healthcare and increasing the appropriate and timely access to electronic
health information to benefit research, quality improvement, emergency
preparedness, and public health. Four objectives of privacy and
security, interoperability, adoption, and colaborative goverance
revolve around both goals, and projects in each of those four categories
will be developed, according to the plan.
A 2010 milestone is to
have the majority of physician EHRs in use to be CCHIT certified.
In addition, ONCHIT is
asking for about $6 million more in its fiscal 2009 estimated budget.
The office has requested $66.1 million to fund IT initiatives, an
increase of $5.5 million over 2008.
Number
of US Primary Care Doctors Down
Yahoo News, February
12, 2008 - Fewer doctors are focusing on primary care, but the decline
is being covered by physicians from other countries. The General
Accountability Office said that as of 2006, there were 22,146 American
doctors in residency programs in the United States specializing
in primary care - or 1,655 less than in 1995. The growth of primary
care doctors in residency programs is reflected by an increase of
2,540 international graduates over the past 11 years coming here
to train in primary care. Currently, one in four new physicians
in the U.S. is an international medical graduate.
CCHIT
Invites Vendors to Apply for 2008 Pilot Test
Healthcare IT News,
February 5, 2008 - The Certification Commission for Healthcare Information
Technology (CCHIT) is inviting EHR vendors to apply for participation
in the pilot test for the July 1 launch of its 2008 electronic health
record certification program. The pilot test is designed to validate
new or revised criteria, test steps and testing tools against real
products and solicit vendor comments to fine-tune the inspection
process.
HHS
Official Leavitt Stumps for EHR Project
iHealth Beat, February 8, 2008
- HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt is travelling the country to discuss
a Medicare demonstration project that aims to expand the use of
electronic health records in small and medium-sized physician practices.
Medicare will select 12 communities for the project, and each community
will be responsible for recruiting about 100 small to medium-sized
physician practices to participate. The agency expects to provide
about $150 million in extra payments to participating practices
during the five-year project.
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