The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced that former Louisiana Rep. John Fleming is taking a new post as deputy assistant secretary for health technology.Fleming said as secretary for health technology he will work on issues and regulations tied to technology and the practice of medicine.
"It's clear there's a lot of work to do, and they're anxious to get somebody in place and...
Accenture Federal Services has chosen Validic and Sutter Health to guide a pilot project exploring how patient-generated data can best be leveraged to improve research and healthcare. The goal is to capture information that Accenture can use to develop a research paper to inform government policy.
The pilot is the next step in Accenture’s two-year consulting contract with the ONC to help the...
The HHS Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC) recently released a whitepaper, based on a workshop held last April, on designing telehealth and remote visits for consumers. The 20-page document is interesting, extensive, and hits on some good points about how to make telehealth convenient and effective for consumers. Yet both the whitepaper and the workshop excluded the viewpoint...
Last week, as part of its Health IT week, the Office of the National Coordinator of Health IT announced that it had hired Lana Moriarty as its new acting director of consumer e-health. Moriarty steps into the shoes of Lygeia Ricciardi, who departed in July after holding the office for three and a half years, during which the bulk of the work was done on the ONC's Blue Button project for consumer...
Earlier this month, Chicago-based startup FitnessCubed launched a Kickstarter for its device, a portable elliptical, called Cubii that fits under a user's desk. The company designed this device for employees who want to stay active even when they are sitting at their desk.
Although many employers offer wellness programs for employees who want to stay fit and healthy, and some companies are...
In one of his first public appearances after stepping down from the ONC, former National Coordinator Dr. Farzad Mostashari didn't talk much about his future plans. But, speaking at the Digital Health Innovation Summit in Boston, he did give his perspective on a number of issues in healthcare and healthcare technology.
Mostashari told interviewer Thomas Goetz, a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation...
The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology Beacon Community program, established under the HITECH act, gives grants to local communities to explore health IT innovations. Three Beacon Communities that have been piloting text-message-based diabetes interventions published a paper in the Journal of Medical Internet Research detailing some challenges and best practices...
Humetrix iBlueButton app won the ONC's Blue Button Mashup Challenge.
Patient engagement is on the minds of a lot of people in healthcare, spurred not only by a requirement in Stage 2 Meaningful Use regulations, but by imperatives to improve the quality of care and boost patient satisfaction. Some providers beginning to open their minds, but technical and cultural challenges stand in the way,...
The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) launched its data access framework initiative this week, an effort to increase interoperability among electronic health records (EHRs) from different vendors. Creating a data standard for all EHRs will empower patients who are switching from one provider to another, help smaller practices analyze and learn from their...
The Department of Health and Human Services has formed a new workgroup, charged with "identifying key considerations to improve patient safety and promote innovation in health information technology (Health IT), including mobile medical applications." The group has been selected by HHS and the FCC and will report to the Health IT Policy Committee which advises the ONC.
This is the same workgroup...
