Last week, HHS announced the launch of its Innovation Fellows Program, which aims to recruit experts from outside the agency to work on innovative health care projects that leverage health IT, CMIO reports.
For the first round of the program, HHS plans to assign five to 10 external experts to innovation fellowship projects focused on:
- Creating electronic identification and tracking technology for the country's organ transplant system;
- Using electronic health record data to develop new clinical quality measures that could help measure the effects of the HITECH Act and the federal health reform law;
- Creating an electronic infrastructure that could help determine eligibility in Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program; and
- Developing technology that would allow individuals with electronic durable medical equipment to continue using such devices during prolonged power outages (Byers, CMIO, 6/25).
The projects will last for six to 12 months. Applications for the program are due by July 20 (Conn, Modern Healthcare, 6/25).