Bradley Merrill Thompson, Member of the Firm in the Health Care and Life Sciences practice, in the firm’s Washington, DC, office, provided commentary on the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology’s (ONC) plan, aimed at increasing use of health IT in the health care system, in Pharma & MedTech Business Intelligence’s The Gray Sheet, in “ONC Outlines Plan to Expand Telehealth, Mobile Health,” by Ferdous Al-Faruque.
Following is an excerpt:
Attorney Bradley Merrill Thompson, who heads coalitions representing a portion [of] the industry that make mobile medical apps and clinical decision support software, says the plan did not contain any surprises. He also hopes more detailed plans will be developed to carry out ONC’s objectives.
Thompson is particularly interested in details on government oversight of the safety net for low-to-medium risk health IT software. …
Thompson notes that in its latest report ONC talks about developing standards for health IT in the plan. He wants to know what those standards will be and who will be tasked with developing them. He would also like to see similar details on health IT interoperability from ONC.
Stakeholders have until Feb. 6, 2015 to comment on the proposed plan, which will be finalized soon after ONC reviews the public feedback. The plan is also meant to provide framing for the Nationwide Interoperability Roadmap expected to be published early next year.