Four advocacy organizations penned a letter March 14 to the ONC and HHS' Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality to request support for their joint National Health IT Safety Collaborative.
In their letter, the ECRI Institute, the Alliance for Quality Improvement and Patient Safety, the Bipartisan Policy Center, and The Pew Charitable Trusts highlighted their decision to establish a national health IT organization, the National Health IT Safety Collaborative, to improve the use and safety of health IT.
The four organizations requested in the letter ONC and AHRQ send agency representatives to participate in the collaborative.
"When health IT works as intended, it improves care and patient safety," the letter reads. "However, it also introduces new types of risk and has led to unintended consequences."
To address these concerns, the National Health IT Safety Collaborative will lead efforts to examine national safety concerns, analyze data from various sources to prioritizing emerging risks, and serve as a clearinghouse for health IT safety tools and resources, according to the letter.
The four organizations plan to engage private and public sector partners in the National Health IT Safety Collaborative during the following months.
To access the letter, click here.