“The Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT’s top goals include prioritizing interoperability, aligning with federal partners, centering health equity and continuing to work toward addressing the COVID-19 crisis, said ONC head Micky Tripathi in an opening keynote for the agency’s annual meeting Monday.”
“Tripathi, who was appointed to lead the agency by President Joe Biden earlier this year, said that assisting in the response to the novel coronavirus pandemic will continue to be a top focus in the months ahead.”
“‘First and foremost is COVID,’ said Tripathi.”
“ONC is involved in helping support the White House with regard to COVID-19 vaccine credentials, as well as with developing a basic FHIR approach to vaccine scheduling, said Tripathi. ‘We’re certainly not out of the woods yet,’ he said. ‘We continue to have very hard work to do.’”
“Tripathi flagged the importance of making interoperability a priority, including figuring out how local, state and regional health information exchange networks fit within nationwide ones.”
“Thus far, he said, ‘we haven’t quite figured out how to integrate all the various layers of interoperability into a seamless experience.’”
“Implementation of the 21st Century Cures Act’s interoperability rules will give stakeholders the opportunity to eliminate some interoperability-related confusion, he predicted – as will wider availability of APIs…” Read the full article here.
Source: ONC’s top goals: Interoperability, alignment and equity — By Kat Jercich, March 29, 2021. Healthcare IT News.




