Far from content to sit back and let electronic health record adoption take care of itself, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT recently awarded two contracts for the assessment of the progress and effectiveness of health IT initiatives, according to Government Health IT.
Surescripts, a national ePrescribing network, was awarded nearly $1.5 million to study the progress being made on reaching a fully-functioning health information exchange. The company will measure transactions between healthcare providers regarding the electronic exchange of prescriptions, laboratory results and other patient records.
Another $2.5 million grant was provided to SK & A Information Associates to study the improvements that practices make in terms of quality and efficiency after implementing a new EHR system. This will give ONC a better idea of the progress that is being made toward achieving the goals of improving healthcare through technology.
The information will give government officials a better idea of what is happening in the real world. This could help them steer future initiatives in a direction that benefits both providers and patients. Most immediately, the information could impact the development of the next stages of meaningful use, which are currently in development and are due to be implemented within the next couple of years.