Health IT News from Federal Agencies and Capitol Hill – Edited by Carolyn Bloch
Dr. John H. Noseworthy, President and CEO of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester Minnesota remarked at the National Press Club, “Putting knowledge into practice quickly will create value that will benefit patients and produce high quality care at lower cost”. He realizes the Mayo Clinic and others need to obtain knowledge on what works and best practice protocols. (more…)
The threat of the emergence of infectious disease epidemics continues to concern policymakers and public health services. Better data is needed in terms of knowledge and tools to improve our knowledge of the emergence, surveillance, and detection of events alone along with knowledge on how to prevent these events. In order to complete these efforts, scientists need to be able to collect, analyze, and interpret the relevant data by developing models to guide the collection of further data. (more…)
The National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) along with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) is developing a new approach to measuring quality. The goal is to provide a more sensitive gauge of risk factors that will make it possible to create clinically meaningful incentives for providers to improve disease prevention.
Under a grant from RWJF, NCQA will evaluate a new measurement tool that focuses on improving the health outcomes of patients with heart disease and diabetes. The “Global Cardiovascular Risk” (GCVR) score, co-developed by NCQA and Archimedes, Inc., is considered the next generation quality improvement tool to measure how well providers can reduce the risk of future adverse outcomes such as heart attacks, strokes, and diabetic complications in the populations they serve. (more…)
The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust awarded more than $6.5 million in grants to seven recipients seeking to develop new technologies to help people living with Type 1 Diabetes (T1D). The grants were made through the Trust’s T1D program as part of their Emerging Technology Initiative that funds earlier stage projects focused on drugs, devices, or therapies, and then moves them down the path towards commercialization. (more…)
Minnesota is in the process of establishing a state-based Exchange and as a result, the state is planning a statewide public education and awareness campaign aimed at reaching uninsured individuals and populations that will be the potential users of the Exchange. The Exchange is required to be fully operational beginning October 1, 2012 with the launching of the public education and awareness campaign to be launched in June 2013.
In February, the state issued an RFP which closed March 18th seeking proposals from qualified firms or contractors capable of providing a wide range of creative development, production, media buying, and marketing analysis services to design and produce a marketing campaign. (more…)
The Health Affairs April Issue examines high income countries struggling to achieve the so-called “Triple Aim” to achieve better health and better healthcare at lower cost. The April issue was supported by the Commonwealth Fund, Britain’s Nuffield Trust, and the Institute of Global Health Innovation at the Imperial College of London.
Several of the articles describe the lessons learned from other countries and how these successes can help the healthcare system. For example, faced with rising prescription drug costs, Australia instituted a strategy to cover new prescription drugs that save money without compromising quality. The article “Australia’s “Fourth Hurdle” Drug Review Comparing Costs and Benefits Holds Lessons for the U.S.” authored by Ruth Lopert and Adam Elshaug, describes how the country’s four step review links prescription drug prices with their quality and effectiveness. (more…)
The FY 2014 Budget for the Office of the National Coordinator for HIT is $78 million which is an appreciable increase of $17 million above FY 2012. For FY 2014, ONC has plans to continue to promote the Meaningful Use of HIT and in FY 2014, eligible providers will begin to attest to Stage 2 of the EHR incentive Programs.
Stage 2 will have standards and specifications to support HIE across vendor boundaries and with patients, provide for new measures and enhanced measures for capturing and reporting clinical quality measure data, and provide enhanced privacy and security protections for mobile devices. (more…)