The past six leaders of the ONC coauthored a statement of support for CMS' two proposed rules to improve interoperability and patient access to electronic health data, published in the Health Affairs blog.
"We, the six people who have served as National Coordinator for Health Information Technology since the ONC was formed in 2004, unanimously believe that these rules have the potential to transform how information flows through our healthcare system, catalyzing broad innovation and engaging and empowering consumers," they wrote.
The six former National Health IT Coordinators are David Blumenthal, MD; David Brailer, MD; Karen DeSalvo, MD; Robert Kolodner, MD; Farzad Mostashari, MD; and Vindell Washington, MD.
Specifically, the past coordinators lauded the expanded use of application programming interfaces, which could help improve the liquidity of clinical data; the expansion of APIs to health plans as well as providers; the requirement that hospitals must notify primary care physicians when patients are admitted, transferred or discharged from the hospital; and provisions to prevent information blocking.
"We fundamentally believe interoperable patient data has enormous implications for patient care and safety," they wrote.
Read the full statement here.
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