Health Information Exchanges

On April 29, 2015, members of the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee released a revised discussion draft of the 21st Century Cures Act (“Cures”). The draft bill includes a number of provisions intended to facilitate drug, biologic, and medical device discovery and development through greater collection and dissemination of data and the use of information technology. This posts discusses provisions of the “Discovery” title of the bill focused on expanding access to NIH research data (Subtitle F) and “facilitating collaborative research” (Subtitle G).
Continue Reading House Cures Draft Includes Provisions to Expand Access to Data, Facilitate Research

Join Covington for a webinar discussion of issues facing life sciences companies as they increasingly utilize cloud services to collect, aggregate, store and process data as part of our Life Sciences Essentials series.

May 13, 2015
12:30 p.m. – 2:00 p.m. EDT
9:30 a.m. – 11:00 a.m. PDT
4:30 p.m. – 6:00 p.m. GMT

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The Joint Commission, an independent, non-profit organization that accredits and certifies health care organizations, recently issued a Sentinel Event Alert to identify patient safety risks related to the use of health information technology and to recommend actions that hospitals and other accredited organizations should consider.
Continue Reading The Joint Commission Issues Health IT-Related Patient Safety Alert

As we described in an a post last month, in the State of the Union the President announced a new “Precision Medicine Initiative” to foster the development and delivery of personalized treatments for illnesses such as cancer and diabetes.  The FY 2016 budget released by the President yesterday includes $215 million in funding to launch the Precision Medicine initiative.
Continue Reading President’s Budget Includes Funding for Precision Medicine Initiative

On December 17, 2014, President Obama signed a combination long-term omnibus spending bill/short-term continuing resolution into law (the “Cromnibus”).  The Explanatory Statement that accompanied passage of the Cromnibus includes several instructions to the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) designed to improve the interoperability of Electronic Health Records (EHR).
Continue Reading Cromnibus Explanatory Statement Urges ONC to Demand Interoperable EHR Technology

Earlier this month, a group of Health Information Exchanges (HIE) announced the formation of a trade association called the “Strategic Health Information Exchange Collaborative” (SHIEC).  According to press coverage, approximately 20 HIEs across the country formed SHIEC to share HIE best practices and collaborate on advocacy and public education efforts.  Dick Thompson, the Executive Director