HHS outlines health IT innovation projects

The Department of Health and Human Services is looking for five to 10 technology innovators to work in the first round of a program seeking to bring some private-sector entrepreneurial spirit to bear on national healthcare challenges. Private-sector participants—so-called external innovation fellows -- in HHS' Innovation Fellows Program will be paired with HHS employees who have already applied for the program to address four projects, three of which have health information technology components.

The three tech-related projects will aim to:

• Develop new clinical quality measures based on data drawn from electronic health-record system that will help measure the impact of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
• Design and develop the information technology infrastructure to determine eligibility for the Children's Health Insurance Program under the Affordable Care Act
• Create an electronic identification and tracking system for the national organ-transplant system.