The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology Creates Privacy and Security Work Group

There are probably a few names here you may recognized if you keep up to date on Health IT. There are some EHR companies in the group, which is good as well as those who contribute and work with electronic systems.

I would have loved to see someone from Express Scripts in here too as due to what they have been through, my gosh I think they have some knowledge to share that I don’t think could be found elsewhere.

It appears to be a really mixed group representing many entities so perhaps this will be a good meeting of the minds all the way around but I didn’t see anyone from a mobile device company here with products that report data via wireless or Blue Tooth, a missing entity?

I think so as devices that report data with mobility in healthcare continues to be an overlooked area of Health IT as information input is getting to be more automated from the consumer/patient side of the equation. I think this appears to be an area where many may be uncomfortable, and it is an issue that makes you feel that way too just due to what it is, but as long as that occurs we seem to end up with the same old case of “tech denial” and are potentially setting up for some big OMG stories to follow. BD

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology has released the names of 17 people appointed by the ONC to serve on a privacy and security work group under the Health IT Policy Committee.

Paul Tang, vice president and chief medical information officer at the Palo Alto Medical Foundation, who also serves as co-chairman of the HIT Policy Committee; fellow policy committee members Latanya Sweeney, a professor and director of the Laboratory for International Data Privacy at Carnegie Mellon University; Republican Florida state Rep. Gayle Harrell; Judith Faulkner, founder and CEO of Epic Systems Corp.; Paul Egerman, chairman and CEO, eScription; Mike Klag, dean, Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health; and work group chairwoman Deven McGraw, director, Health Privacy Project, Center for Democracy & Technology.

Other members of the privacy and security work group are: Dixie Baker, a member of the HIT Standards Committee, senior vice president and technical fellow and chief technology officer for health and life sciences, Science Applications International Corp.; Paul Uhrig, general counsel and executive vice president in charge of corporate development and chief privacy officer, SureScripts; Terri Shaw, deputy director, Children's Partnership; John Houston, vice president for privacy and information security and assistant counsel, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center; Joyce Dubow, senior adviser on health reform at the AARP; A. John Blair, a physician who is president and CEO of the Taconic Independent Practice Association; Peter Basch, a physician who is medical director, ambulatory EHR and health IT policy, MedStar Health system, Columbia, Md.; Justine Handelman, executive director, legislative and regulatory policy, Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association; Marianna Bledsoe, deputy associate director, Office of Biotechnical Activities, National Institutes of Health; and work group Co-chairwoman Rachel Block, deputy commissioner for health IT transformation for New York state.

Privacy work group members include Tang, Sweeney - Modern Healthcare