Dive Brief:
- The Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC) has released the 50-page final version of its Health IT Strategic Plan for 2015 to 2020. The four main goals include transforming healthcare delivery and community health; enhancing health IT infrastructure; fostering research, scientific knowledge and innovation; and advancing person-centered health and self-management.
- The plan requires collaboration from private stakeholders, state and local governments, and all healthcare industry stakeholders to advance its objective. Several initiatives complementary to the plan are in place, such as the Blue Button Initiative.
- ONC will collect information and data to measure the plan's success, including the percent of office-based physicians treating patients seen by providers outside the medical organization and those with EHRs from those outside encounters.
Dive Insight:
The plan originated from ONC's Federal Health IT Advisory Council, which gathered information from 35 entities and departments in the council as well as public comment from about 400 people and organizations.
Industry leaders support the plan. "The incorporation of person-centered health as a core goal of the final Federal Health IT Strategic Plan...is a significant and positive step toward the kind of patient- and family-centered healthcare system this country needs," said Debra Ness, president of the National Partnership for Women & Families, in a statement. HHS will provide annual updates on the plan starting next year.