Federal Health IT Strategic Plan was published in June 2008. As part of the 2009 HITECH
The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) has a vision for interoperable health IT all over the nation. This work requires that ONC supports the creation of a learning health system that is patient-centered and uses information to improve health and health care of individuals and the population continuously. ONC started to obtain input for a detailed roadmap outlining goals, principles, objectives, strategies, and tactics for this effort. This roadmap will pave the road to ONC’s vision and help the health system be accountable.
The original Act, included in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, must update the 2008 Strategic Plan.
The updated Federal Health IT Strategic Plan will tell about objectives, milestones, and metrics related to health information exchange and associated privacy and security protections, electronic health record utilization, and will point out the needs of underserved populations to reduce health disparities. It will basically address the time period of 2011 through 2015 but it also will lay the groundwork for continued innovation and progress past 2015.
The strategic planning process will depend upon your insights and experience. We would like the process to be highly participatory, with bold involvement across the health care sector, and opportunities for public input and discussion. To this end, the HIT Policy Committee’s Strategic Plan Workgroup is tasked with developing for the Policy Committee the Health IT Strategic Framework to give notice to the strategic planning process and providing a vehicle for public and private input.
The Framework will have recommendations for the Committee for updates to the Federal Health IT
Strategic Plan. The present draft Framework organizes key strategies into four themes: meaningful use of health IT; policy and technical infrastructure; privacy and security; and learning health systems. For each theme there are goals, principles, objectives, and strategies. Ultimately, the Federal Health IT Strategic Plan will go two steps further by planning specific tactics and measures per theme.
