Blumenthal to set aggressive pace for health data exchange

Dr. David Blumenthal, the national health IT coordinator, expects to aggressively pick up the pace on health information exchange following the recent call from the White House for a common language and format for exchanging data between electronic health records systems.

To that end, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT will create an advisory panel to see how to implement some of the ideas laid out in the White House report. The work group, comprised of members of ONC’s Health IT Policy and Standards Committees and other privacy and security experts, will make recommendations to both committees by April. The report, published Dec. 8 by the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST), directed ONC and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to develop the technical definitions and descriptions for the standard language and include them in requirements for meaningful use of electronic health records in 2013 and 2015. The administration is absolutely committed to achieving interoperability, and it’s “not a minor issue” for them, Blumenthal said at a standards committee meeting Dec. 17.