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ONC releases survey findings on electronic health information exchange

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology has released findings from its survey about health information exchange in clinical laboratories. The results were published in two data briefs, “Health Information Exchange among Clinical Laboratories” and “Patient Access to Test Results among Clinical Laboratories,” which are posted on the HealthIT.gov Web site.
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mong the numerous findings of the survey, which concluded last year and provided data for 2012, was that two-thirds of clinical labs that responded could send structured test results to an ordering physician’s electronic health record system. Three-fourths of clinical labs surveyed reported sharing test results electronically as structured or unstructured data. Test results were most often shared through an interface to an EHR (56 percent), Web portals provided by the lab (26 percent) or a third party (22 percent), interfaces to a health information exchange or health information organization (17 percent), or via third-party middleware (16 percent).

Common challenges to sending test results electronically in a structured format were high subscription rates for exchange service providers (19 percent), lack of harmonization of industry-accepted standards (17 percent), and EHR systems that could not receive structured test results (nine percent).

The survey also found that the proportion of labs able to send structured test results was significantly higher than the national average in the states of Oregon, Iowa, Michigan, West Virginia, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont, and Maine, and significantly lower in Texas.

Upcoming informatics meetings

• The Association of Medical Directors of Information Systems will hold its 23rd annual Physician–Computer Connection Symposium, June 18–20, in Ojai, Calif. National experts in clinical computing and health care information technology will present, in a highly interactive forum, such topics as clinical decision support, quality improvement through the use of information technology, and the future of software regulation. The program is based on the books, The Physician–Computer Connection and The Physician–Computer Conundrum, written by William F. Bria, MD, and Richard L. Rydell, who are among the faculty of the symposium. For more information or to register, go to www.amdis.org.
• The Association for Pathology Informatics will hold its annual national conference, Pathology Informatics 2014, May 13–16, in Pittsburgh. The conference will feature workshops on pathology informatics review, HIMA imaging science, and molecular pathology IT, as well as a digital pathology demonstration. It will also offer short abstract presentations, lectures, town hall sessions, and other learning environments, as well as an exhibition fair. For more information or to register, go to www.pathologyinformatics.com.

Google cloud platform supporting HIPAA

Google recently announced that it will serve vendors building health care applications on its cloud platform by supporting HIPAA and business associate agreements for those customers.

Google began entering into business associate agreements late last year to allow its Google Apps clients to support data regulated by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act.

The HIPAA final omnibus rule makes business associates directly liable for HIPAA rule violations.

Dr. Aller is director of informatics and clinical professor in the Department of Pathology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles. He can be reached at raller@usc.edu. Hal Weiner is president of Weiner Consult­ing Services, LLC, Florence, Ore. He can be reached at hal@weinerconsulting.com.