Examining the Latest Draft Federal Health IT Strategic Plan

Continuing the chain of setting cohesive health IT objectives among federal health-related agencies, the Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) for Health Information Technology at HHS issued the draft 2024-2030 Federal Health IT Strategic Plan late last month. The plan serves as a roadmap for agencies on where to prioritize resources, coordinate efforts across agencies, and benchmark progress and changes, according to Dustin Charles, Policy Specialist at ONC.  For contractors, the plan identifies health IT priorities among federal entities.  

The latest plan follows an iteration of plans set out by ONC for health IT agencies. According to Charles, earlier plans focused on the adoption of electronic health record systems and new technologies. The preceding plan from 2020-2024 targeted health information exchange and interoperability. The current plan aims to address barriers and challenges to health information exchange to ensure accessibility to health data, and guarantee adoption of new technologies such as artificial intelligence.

The draft emphasizes four goals, each with a specific purpose and target audience. The goals include Promote Health and Wellness; Enhance the Delivery and Experience of Care; Accelerate Research and Innovation; and Connect the Health System with Health Data. The first goal is centered on individuals and communities, while the second goal targets those in health care delivery such as providers, caregivers, and public health professionals, explained Charles. The third goal centers on health IT research and development, and the fourth goal underlays the prior goals by focusing on the infrastructure needed to achieve the strategic plan.

While the plan provides detailed federal strategies to achieve a list of objectives under each goal, the following provides select strategies with potential contractor implications:

Promote Health and Wellness

• Support individuals in accessing and using electronic health information (EHI) securely and privately without special effort.
• Expand access to smartphones and other connected technologies.
• Improve security and portability of EHI through APIs and other interoperable health IT.
• Standardize data and include the information in health and human systems to build on evidence based EHI improvements.
• Promote transparency on the use of AI technologies.

Enhance the Delivery and Experience of Care

• Use health IT to support payment for high-quality, value-based care.
• Support efforts to address patient identity and record linking solutions.
• Advance standardization and interoperability of social determinants of health data.
• Support expanded use of secure telehealth, including audio-only telehealth.
• Use digital engagements technologies beyond portals to connect patients with health information.
• Support efforts to merge clinical and administrative data streams, including payment data.
• Promote save and responsible use of AI tools, including increasing automation related to health care provider data collection and reporting.

Accelerate Research and Innovation

• Provide ways for individuals to securely share their own health information via applications and other health IT for research.
• Advance individual- and population-level transfer of health data.
• Streamline access and exchange of linked health and human services datasets.
• Increase access to tools to analysis of health care data for research.
• Apply digital health tools to advance research into targeted therapies.
• Protect de-identified health information from re-identification.

Connect the Health System with Health Data

• Advance a TEFCA that creates a universal governance, policy and technical environment for nationwide interoperability, enables EHI accessibility, and simplifies connectivity for organizations to exchange information.
• Assess current and expected health IT and broadband infrastructure demands.
• Enhance and expand broadband access and communication infrastructure.
• Deploy secure, cloud-based services.
• Implement health IT policies and tools that support the rapid, scalable reporting and use of public health data.
• Advance the use of forecasting and predictive analytics.
• Increase data linkages across diverse data assets.

Public comments on the draft plan are due to ONC no later than May 28, 2024. Contractors can expect departments and agencies with a health-related component or mission to align forthcoming priorities and initiatives with components of the strategic plan upon finalization of the document.