For health IT to benefit health and healthcare, it must be useable by – and useful to – patients and clinicians.  This is precisely where the discipline of human factors and ergonomics (HFE) serves as an essential foundation for the development, implementation, and use of high-quality health information systems and practices.  HFE improves overall performance through study of interactions among humans and other elements of a system.

Passed four years ago, the 21st Century Cures Act (Cures Act) included a definition of “information blocking.” On behalf of the HHS Secretary, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) was tasked with implementing this definition and its “exceptions.” The new regulation (also a “law”) published in the Federal Register this past May by ONC identified three types of participants in health care that are covered under information blocking: 1) health care providers, 2) health IT developers of certified health IT, and 3) health information networks (HINs)/health information exchanges (HIEs). We call them “actors” for short.

In a companion blog post I covered some foundational points about the 21st Century Cures Act’s (Cures Act) information blocking law and the regulation ONC issued to implement the law.

Our recent virtual event, Accelerating APIs in Healthcare: A Year in Review and Momentum for 2021, featured more than 1,000 viewers and 40 speakers with one clear, consistent message: big things will come in 2021. The full recording is now available on our website.

To battle the COVID-19 pandemic, health professionals need immediate access to relevant health data in order to inform clinical decision making, conduct timely research, understand trends, and inform response efforts.