Please note: This post by the HIT Standards Committee’s Implementation Workgroup is now closed for comment. Monitor this blog for more posts from the FACA committees and its workgroups as issues develop. Also, please visit the Health IT Buzz Blog to join other Health IT related conversations.
Welcome to the new Federal Advisory Committee Blog! Since many of you may be unfamiliar with Federal Advisory Committees (FACAs) and their role at ONC, I wanted to give you some background and a preview of what you can look forward to on this blog.
“FACAs” get their name from the Federal Advisory Committee Act, which lays out the guidelines for such committees. FACAs are advisory and intended to provide external recommendations to the government. They are also very open committees – meetings are held in public, information on the meetings is posted in the Federal Register, and all FACA records are readily available. At the very root of the FACA mandate is transparency and collaboration.
ONC has two FACAs – the HIT Policy Committee and the HIT Standards Committee. These committees were established to obtain outside advice or recommendations on key health information technology topics from leaders who represent various stakeholder groups. HIT Policy Committee members were selected by the U.S. Government Accountability Office, the Department of Health and Human Services, and Congress. The HIT Standards Committee members were selected, invited, and appointed by the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services. Current members are listed on http://healthit.hhs.gov. In my role at ONC, I serve as the liaison between these Committees and ONC.
In the spirit of transparency and collaboration, this blog will help ONC’s FACAs open a broader dialogue with you. In the months to come, we will use this blog to let you know about key FACA activities. Since the FACAs do not meet frequently, there will be periods when the blog is not active. I hope you not only find the information that will be posted to this blog interesting and insightful, but, above all, that you heed our call to join this important conversation.
– Judy Sparrow, Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT
Blog post updated as of 1/21/2010
Tags: FACA, Federal Advisory Committee Act, health IT, HIT Policy Committee, HIT Standards Committee, ONC
Wow! Just came across this brand new blog. Beautiful idea… Looking forward to the conversation.
May it live long and prosper….
Margalit
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wouldn’t natural language technology help translate across vendor platforms for development of some of the lists needed for care? i.e. emscribe
Hot debate. What do you think?
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[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Brian Ahier and Barbara Olson, Sam Adams. Sam Adams said: RT @ahier: COOL! New #HITpol Blog to support transparency and collaboration http://bit.ly/nFdEa #Gov20 (HT @GovHIT) [...]
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Nice – Tweets are pulled in as well…
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[...] these two very important committees. She also provides this explanation about the committees in her first ONC blog post: “FACAs” get their name from the Federal Advisory Committee Act, which lays out the guidelines [...]
Hot debate. What do you think?
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I agree with the concept of building for the “smallest unit”. That is where the patient is and where clinical decision making takes place. I like the blog – Government 2.0?
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Jim, I would definitely say this is a great Gov 2.0 initiative…
It will be nice to see further integration with other social media platforms as well (for instance, a HIT Policy meeting webcast on Facebook similar to some the Whitehouse has done)
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This is going to be a very valuable communication tool. I am very happy that this blog has been launched and look forward to seeing the conversation develop.
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I look forward to the conversations here, and very glad to here the first set of speakers agree on some basic principles, e.g. start now, keep it simple, build for the “smallest unit” = medical practices. Kind regards, dCK
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Great to see the added ability to communication with the public for the HIT Standards and Policy Committees. Thanks for all the great work of the committee members and the HHS staff
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Judy,
Good to see you and more broadly ONC/HHS to launch this effort. But one word of caution, starting a Blog is not for the feint of heart. A Blog is much like a famished beast – it requires frequent feeding or else it either attacks its owner or simply dies.
Hope your new pet (beast) prospers
John
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Welcome to the blogging world!! I think this is a fantastic thing and I hope that you’re able to keep it updated regularly. I also hope that it won’t just turn into an announcement board, but that you provide educational material in regards to the various ONC processes, timelines and milestones.
I look forward to joining the conversation. Just enable trackbacks on the blog so you’ll see the conversation about your blog posts that are happening on other blogs as well.
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