HHS should allocate part of its allotment for comparative effectiveness research from the federal economic stimulus package to improve its data infrastructure for sharing and analyzing information, according to a federal report released yesterday, Government Health IT reports.
In the IT arena, the report by the Federal Coordinating Council for Comparative Effectiveness Research recommended that HHS provide funds to:
- Link current data sources;
- Develop distributed data networks; and
- Partner with private organizations.
The report stated that current databases are not easily searchable and are fragmented to the point that researchers do not know what information the databases contain.
The federal stimulus law required the report, which was based on input from stakeholders at a number of public meetings (Robinson, Government Health IT, 6/29).