Blumenthal: 2013 meaningful use to ramp up health information exchange, decision support

Dr. David Blumenthal, the national health information technology coordinator, sent a strong signal to healthcare providers and vendors to expect more complex requirements for health information exchange and clinical decision support tools to be among forthcoming requirements for the next stage of meaningful use.

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT is now beginning to do "early reconnaissance" around development of stage 2 meaningful use requirements, according to Dr Blumenthal. "We know there were a set of unfinished tasks, things we passed over in the effort to get the first stage of meaningful use out the door," he said at an industry event Sept. 21 about states which are leading in electronic prescribing and where he took the opportunity to communicate some future plans. The provider and vendor community "should look forward to a much more robust set of requirements around health information exchange, an exchange that consciously ignores economic relationships, geographic relationships and political jurisdictions. "We want information to follow patients," Blumenthal said.