FROM THE FOUNDATION

Paper to Electronic Charts Made Easy

Community clinics with experience making the transition from paper to electronic records share the strategies, techniques, and insights they learned along the way.

Telehealth Project to Provide Dental Care

Low-income families will receive free dental care, thanks to the Virtual Dental Home, a telehealth project supported by CHCF and other funders. The four-year pilot project will eventually operate in nine California communities.

Take the DiabetesMine Design Challenge

Have a creative idea for a new tool to improve life with diabetes? The 2010 DiabetesMine Design Challenge is offering $23,000 in cash, plus consultations with design experts and other prizes. CHCF is a sponsor; entries are due by April 30.

ONC

Wednesday, February 03, 2010

ONC Prepares for Health IT Extension Centers, Patient Survey on EHRs

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT will award its first round of grants to establish regional health IT extension centers this month, according to a notice in the Federal Register, Health Data Management reports.

The 2009 federal economic stimulus package provided about $598 million for the regional extension center program.

ONC said the grants would help establish 60 extension centers. The program calls for the centers to provide technical assistance and other resources to help health care providers adopt electronic health record systems (Goedert [1], Health Data Management, 2/2).

Surveying Patients on EHRs

ONC also published a notice announcing plans to survey about 1,700 patients on their experiences with physician practices that use EHR systems. ONC said it would enlist 84 primary care practices to help with the study.

The survey aims to help ONC learn more about how EHRs could affect patient satisfaction with their medical care (Goedert [2], Health Data Management, 2/2).



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