Plotting Our Course for the Next Five Years

During this 50th anniversary celebration of HIMSS’ founding, it has been fun to reminisce about all the momentous events over the last five decades. At the same time, it is critical that we look forward to not only help clearly chart HIMSS’ path into the future, but help plot our nation’s health IT transformation path too, as HIMSS members will continue to play a key role in this transformation.

Recently, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC) issued its updated draft Federal Health Information Technology Strategic Plan for 2011-2015. The first ONC Strategic Plan was released in July 2004 and established the ONC focus on provider adoption, interconnecting providers, and leveraging health IT to support improvements in population health. Following a series of initiatives associated with creating the foundation for the Nationwide Health Information Network, the Health IT Standards Panel’s work on standards harmonization, and the Certification Commission for Health IT (CCHIT) certification process, ONC released an update to the Strategic Plan in June 2008.

Following passage of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, ONC was required by the law’s HITECH provisions Section 3001(c)(3) to update and publish a collaborative Federal Health IT Strategy. The submission of this strategy plan and request for public comment is intended to meet the requirements of the legislation.

In addition, given the important role health IT has in establishing the foundation for healthcare transformation, the new strategic plan incorporates goals and milestones associated with the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (ACA), the Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act of 2008 (MIPPA), and the Children’s Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2009 (CHIPRA).

Finally, as a commitment to promoting electronic health information, the strategic plan emphasizes the necessity of a standards-based approach to information sharing.

Congress intended the strategic plan to provide an updated roadmap for federal health IT initiatives.

From a policy perspective, it allows ONC to exercise its function as the national coordinator to ensure that federal health IT initiatives optimize cross-agency resources that can support improving the quality and cost effectiveness of care delivery in all care settings that receive federal funding.

The strategic plan also takes a global perspective on leveraging the care delivery, insurance programs, and health IT deployment experiences at the Indian Health Service, Department of Defense and Department of Veterans Affairs.

ONC announced in a Health IT Buzz on March 25th that it is seeking public comment on the draft strategic plan for 2011-2015 by April 22, 2011. A revised strategic plan will be published following review of the public comments.

HIMSS members who are interested in participating in a cross-HIMSS review and comment response are encouraged to send an email to policy@himss.org

This is the time to make your voice heard and to participate in this critical update of the ONC Strategic Plan so that HIMSS’ next 50 years are even more productive than our first five decades.