When President George W. Bush elevated healthcare technology to the level of a national priority, the primary goal was ready access to health records. Fast forward a decade and the former president told a HIMSS15 keynote audience last April in Chicago that when someone is in an accident, that data should be instantly available to caregivers. 

"There are still challenges related to widespread interoperability," Bush said, "but it's coming. Things don't happen overnight."

[Learn more about the 2015 mHealth Summit.]

A new milestone in that journey is the recent release of the long-awaited roadmap by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT. Titled "Connecting Health and Care for the Nation: A Shared Nationwide Interoperability Roadmap Version 1.0," the document lays out a path for collaboration on building a health IT infrastructure where data records are readily shared.

The 76-page document, incorporating the final version of the Shared Nationwide Interoperability Roadmap, covers a broad range of HIT initiatives, including software APIs, patient privacy requirements and value-based payment policies.

With so much at stake, HIT stakeholders are bound to have questions.

The ONC has agreed to hold a Town Hall discussion on Monday, Nov. 9, at the 2015 HIMSS Connected Health Conference, taking place in conjunction with the mHealth Summit at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center just outside Washington D.C.The session will take place from 12:45-2:15 p.m. in Potomac Ballroom AB.

In addition, senior ONC officials will be hosting a Fireside Chat from 11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Monday, Nov. 9, in Potomac Ballroom AB, where they'll address a wide variety of topics. And later that day, from 2:30-3:30 p.m.in Potomac Ballroom AB, they'll hold a Town Hall to discuss modifications to Stage 3 of the Meaningful Use guidelines.

For more information about the discussion, visit the Connected Health Conference website