Recovery.gov - Track the Money

STANLEY ASSOCIATES, INC.

The purpose of this award is to develop and maintain Interoperability Tools and Standards repository to support the entire standards and interoperability life cycle and facilitate wider use of standards and increased level of interoperability across the nation in health IT. The wider adoption and effective use of Health Information Technology requires adherence to standards, implementation of standards per common interoperability specifications and use of health IT in a meaningful way. The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act of 2009 states that the National Coordinator shall perform duties in a manner consistent with the development of a nationwide health information technology infrastructure that allows for the electronic use and exchange of information and that: a. Ensures that each patient’s health information is secure and protected, in accordance with applicable law; b. Improves health care quality, reduces medical errors, reduces health disparities, and advances the delivery of patient-centered medical care; c. Reduces health care costs, resulting from inefficiency, medical errors, inappropriate care, duplicative care and incomplete information; d. Provides appropriate information to help guide medical decisions at the time and place of care; e. Ensures the inclusion of meaningful public input in such development of such infrastructure; f. Improves the coordination of care and information among hospitals, laboratories, physician offices, and other entities through an effective infrastructure for the secure and authorized exchange of health care information; g. Improves public health activities and facilitates the early identification and rapid response to public health threats and emergencies, including bio-terror events and infectious disease outbreaks; h. Facilitates health and clinical research and health care quality; i. Promotes early detection, prevention and management of chronic diseases; j. Promotes a more effective marketplace, greater competition, greater systems analysis, increased consumer choice, and improved outcomes in healthcare services; and k. Improves efforts to reduce health disparities. HITECH Act also includes consideration for other areas including “the appropriate uses of a nationwide health information infrastructure including for the purposes of: a. The collection of quality data and public reporting; b. Bio-surveillance and public health; c. Medical and clinical research; and d. Drug safety. Effective information exchange is a key foundation to meet these goals and objectives; and appropriate standards and common adoption of those standards is important for interoperability. This program will leverage previous efforts in the areas of standards and interoperability specification and enhance these efforts by harmonizing these efforts to help the healthcare market at large.

Clarification of Codes