Health IT Policy Committee considers PCAST recommendations

A presidential advisory committee's call for federal adoption of a health-information exchange language came up for discussion before the federal Health Information Technology Policy Committee on Dec 13, with David Blumenthal, the national coordinator for health information technology at HHS, saying the advisory committee's recommendation is “strongly supported by the president.”

Similar recommendations regarding patient privacy, however, were not so forcefully addressed by the ONC chief. Blumenthal told the health IT policy committee that a "forward-leaning posture on information exchange will be welcome." Blumenthal signaled his desire to use the financial leverage in the program created under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 to drive home the exchange-language recommendations issued by the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology in a report last week.