Meaningful use could include steps toward PCAST exchange goals

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT could include in the requirements for the next stage of meaningful use some functions that would build toward the comprehensive information exchange system that a presidential commission recommended last year.

These functions could include a patient’s ability to download information to a personal health record (PHR), simple search by providers and sharing immunization data, according to an advisory panel that is examining the report of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST). Meaningful use in 2013 could promote the use of patient portals, which give individuals access to their electronic health records. Patients could then send or “push” their information or specific data elements to their PHR, which they control, said William Stead, co-chair of the Health IT Policy Committee’s PCAST work group.