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Health Information Technology
Overview
Health information technology (HIT) allows comprehensive management of medical information and its secure exchange between health care consumers and providers.
Broad use of HIT has the potential to improve health care quality, prevent medical errors, increase the efficiency of care provision and reduce unnecessary health care costs, increase administrative efficiencies, decrease paperwork, expand access to affordable care, and improve population health. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) was given a leadership role and funding from Congress to create the technical infrastructure for a HIT network.
A role for NIST is articulated in the Federal Health IT Strategic Plan 2008-2012. NIST and the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) of HHS entered into an Interagency Agreement in 2005, the collaboration was strengthened in the ARRA, including HHS transfer of $20 million in ARRA funds to NIST for work on advancing health care information integration through activities such as technical standards analysis and establishment of conformance testing infrastructure.
Standards and certification are needed to identify and harmonize technical standards related to health information exchange. Information regarding these efforts can be found at the website of the Office of the National Coordinator.
Information resources
Health and Human Services Health IT website
NIST Health IT Standards and Testing
News feed
Health IT update: Initial EHR Certification Bodies Named September 01, 2010 The Certification Commission for Health Information Technology (CCHIT), Chicago, Ill. and the Drummond Group Inc. (DGI), Austin, Texas, were named... by HHS Press Office
Transatlantic Economic Council Annual Meeting 2010 January 05, 2011 The Transatlantic Economic Council issued a joint statement describing the results of their annual meeting in Washington, D.C. on December 17, 2010. ... by GSI Staff
New Electronic Health Records Certification System Receives High Marks from Opinion Leader Anthony Guerra of InformationWeek January 06, 2011 New Electronic Health Records Certification System Receives High Marks from Opinion Leader Anthony Guerra of InformationWeek In a recent editorial,... by GSI Staff
ONC Requests NIST to Develop Health IT Laboratory Accreditation Program February 24, 2011 The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) National Coordinator has requested that the National Institute of... by GSI Staff
Event Feed
6th Annual IT Security Automation Conference
Sep 27-29, 2010 ( Baltimore,
MD
)
Event Organizer: NIST and the Department of Homeland Security
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