The Health Information Technology Advisory Committee on Wednesday unanimously approved its second annual report to Congress on the state of health IT landscape, recommending fixes to improve the electronic access, exchange and use of medical information.
Though last year saw some “considerable” advancements in health IT toward this goal, a thicket of challenges remain — key among them lack of oversight from the federal government clarifying the protection and use of sensitive medical data, according to the report.
HITAC member comments on the initial draft ran 28 pages, though no additional critiques or suggestions were aired at Wednesday’s meeting before its approval.
Also at the meeting, the head of the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT, Don Rucker, teased that ONC’s part of twin HHS rules to promote interoperability will be “coming out relatively soon.” The final rules have been held up in Office of Management and Budget review amid a roiling public discussion on privacy and security of medical information versus patient access to their own data.
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