About Mike Squires

Mike Squires is a marketing and sales executive with 12 years focused on e-Healthcare initiatives that helped physicians change the way they work for better patient care. Experienced in introducing new online products to physicians, healthcare professionals, and the pharmaceutical and medical device industries with innovative sales and marketing strategies at start-up and traditional healthcare publishers. Helped position Medscape as the market leader to the industry and accelerate e-product offerings of Elsevier’s International Medical News Group and F-D-C Reports. Directed marketing, sales, client relations, sales support, and implementation of medical education and promotion programs. Entrepreneurial and enthusiastic; excellent mentor and motivator.

Curriculum Development Centers: FOA Modified, Technical Call on 12/17

Curriculum Development Centers:
FOA Modification; Technical Assistance Call on 12/17
Major changes appear to be 1) development funding changed to one 2-year period, 2) applicants no longer limited to non-profits, and 3) data collection methodology explanation postponed. See excerpts below and refer to ONC Web site for official updates.

Email received from ONC: Latest news, 12/15:  The Curriculum Development Centers Program has released a revised Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA).  Visit http://healthit.hhs.gov/curriculumdevelopment or grants.gov for the updates.  We have also developed a FAQ which highlights the key revisions made to the document for your convenience. This FAQ is located here.

Please note that a Technical Assistance call is scheduled for potential applicants on Thursday, December 17, 2009, at 3:00 – 4:00 P.M. EST.

Interested parties are encouraged to join the call using the following information:

To participate:
Webcast: https://www.livemeeting.com/cc/dt/join?id=WF2N4C&role=attend&pw=qJ%21%213q4
Audio:
Dial in number: 1-888-982-4496 (toll-free)
Participant passcode: 8701213 

First Time Users:
To save time before the meeting, check your system to make sure it is ready to use Microsoft Office Live Meeting.

There will be time reserved for a Question and Answer session; questions should be submitted by email to HITCurriculum@hhs.gov or via the Microsoft Office Live Meeting interface.  A transcript of the call and the slide deck will be posted on http://healthit.hhs.gov shortly after the call.  For detailed information on the Curriculum Development Centers Program, visit http://healthit.hhs.gov/curriculumdevelopment or Grants.gov

Visit http://healthit.hhs.gov/hitechgrants for information on the various HITECH Funding Opportunity Announcements.

Note: Grants.gov links were corrected to guide e-Healthcare Marketing readers to correct location.

MODIFICATIONS
Modifications excerpted from FAQs accessed on 1/15/09.
D. FOA MODIFICATIONS[UPDATED 12/15/09]
D1. Could you please outline the changes made to the original funding opportunity announcement released in the revised version posted December 15, 2009?
Section II.1, Summary of Funding:
-
The word “approximately” has been added to describe total amount of funding available.
-
The budget period has been changed from 2 one-year year periods to one 2-year period (and now matches the project period).

Section II.3, Evaluation and Milestones:
-
Two paragraphs have been added to describe how the awardees’ progress toward the key milestones will be monitored and their performance assessed.

Section III.1, Eligible Applicants:
-
Eligibility is no longer limited to only applicants with nonprofit status.

Section III.3a, Application Screening Criteria:
-
The screening criteria will no longer limit eligibility to applicants with nonprofit status.
-
The project narrative page limit has been expanded to 25 pages (from 20 pages).

Section IV.2, Address to Request and Submit Application Package:
-
Information has been added to satisfy the requirements of the Paperwork Reduction Act pertaining to collection of information for the application.

Section IV.3c, Project Narrative:
-
The project narrative page limit has been expanded to 25 pages (from 20 pages).

Section IV.3f, Budget Narrative/Justification:
-
The budget period has been changed from 2 one-year year periods to one 2-year period (and now matches the project period).

Appendix G – Recovery Act-Required Performance Measures
-
The requirement for the applicant to discuss their data collection methods in the application has been removed. This information can be submitted at a later time.

New Privacy & Security Workgroup Presents Charge and Members

Privacy & Security Policy Workgroup
of HIT Policy Committee

The new Privacy & Security Policy Workgroup foimed by the HIT Policy Committeee will work in coordination with the Privacy & Security Workgroup of the Standards Committee. Below is draft of workgroup’s basic charge and members as presented in HIT Policy Committee on December 15, 2009. Excerpted from ONC Web site.

Charge – DRAFT
“To make recommendations to the Health IT Policy Committee on privacy and security policies and practices that will help build public trust in health information technology and electronic health information exchange. Specifically, the workgroup will seek to address complex privacy and security challenges through the development of proposed solutions and approaches that enhance privacy and security while also facilitating the appropriate access, use and exchange of health information to improve health outcomes.”

Workgroup Members
Deven McGraw, Chair
Center for Democracy & Technology

Rachel Block, Co-Chair
NYS Department of Health

Dixie Baker, SAIC
Peter Basch, Provider
A. John Blair, Provider
Marianna Bledsoe, NIH
Joyce DuBow, American Association of Retired Persons
Paul Egerman, Consultant
Judy Faulkner, Epic, Inc.
Justine Handelman, Blue Cross Blue Shield
Gayle Harrell, Consumer Representative/Florida
John Houston, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center
Mike Klag, Johns Hopkins University, Public Health
Terri Shaw, Children’s Partnership
Latanya Sweeney, Carnegie Mellon University
Paul Tang, Palo Alto Medical Foundation
Paul Uhrig, SureScripts
David Wanser, NDIIC
Kathleen Connor, MicroSoft

Blumenthal Provides EHR/HIE ‘Meaningful Use’ Overview

 Blumenthal Provides EHR/HIE ‘Meaningful Use’ Overview
In the December 15, 2009 HIT Policy Committee Meeting , Nat’l Coordinator for Health IT David Blumenthal provides overview of ONC office transformation and a framework for viewing the paths to “Meaningful Use.” Description below follows Blumenthal’s remarks at this morning’s meeting from goals on right side of image working back to various structures and programs on left of image.

Click on the ARRA Enabling Strutures image, and the same image on the next page for larger, readable view. Image is part of Blumenthal’s slide presentation.

ARRA Enabling Structures
ARRA Enabling Structures

Goals and Purpose of Meaningful Use
1. Improved Clinical Outcomes
2. Improved Population Health Outcomes
3. Increased Efficiency in the Health Care System
4. Empowered Individuals
5. Learning Health Care Systems

Two Critical Issues toward Meaningful Use
1. Exchange & Enhanced Uses
2. Adoption

Path One (outlined below) forms a Pathway for Exchange toward Exchange & Enhanced Uses.

Path Two (outlined below) impact both Exchange & Enhanced Uses and Adoption.

Path Three (outlined below) supports Trusted and Effective EHRs.

Three Key Paths
Path One
     State HIE Grants
     Public Health Infrastructure
     Standards & Certification, NHIN
     Privacy & Security
     Federal Coordination & Planning
     R&D and Innovation

Path Two
     Medicare & Medicaid Incentives
     Regional Extension Centers
     Beacon Communities
     Workforce
     Provider & Consumer Demand (Pull)

Path Three
     R&D and Innovation
     Evaluation, Reports, & Studies
     Communications
     Transparency/Surveillance
     Standards & Certification
     Federal Coordination & Planning
     Regional Extension Centers (while not pictured in graphic, Blumenthal said REC were critical to this path as well).

For complete slide presentation, see
Briefing on the ONC Agenda [PPT - 1.37 MB]
from David Blumenthal, National Coordinator for Health IT

Blumenthal also provided review  of restructuring of ONC and its departments, which was detailed in an earlier post on e-Heathcare Marketing. The office has grown from about 33 FTEs (full time equivalents) when Blumenthal initially joined to over 50 currently, with expectation that it will increase to closer to 100.

Blumenthal also noted that the grant funding programs managed by ONC were labelled “cooperative agreements” since ONC will be partnering with grant recipients and overseeing implementation, not merely granting funds and reviewing results or benchmarks. 

HIT Policy Cmte Materials: Dec 15, 2009

HIT Policy Committee Materials: Dec 15, 2009
Location:
Washington, DC
Time:
9 a.m. to 2:45 p.m. EST 

For timed agenda, Webcast and call-in number, see earlier post on e-Healthcare Marketing.

HIT Policy Committee Dec 15 Agenda:NHIN, Privacy & Security, Meaningful Use, Health Plans

HIT Policy Committee Agenda: NHIN, Privacy & Security, Meaningful Use, Health Plans To Testify
December 15, 2009

9:00 a.m. to 2:45 p.m. [Eastern Time]
Washington, DC

A G E N D A   (pdf version)
9:00 a.m. CALL TO ORDER – Judy Sparrow
Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology
9:05 a.m. Opening Remarks – David Blumenthal, MD, MPP, National Coordinator for Health Information Technology
9:15 a.m. Review of the Agenda – Paul Tang, Vice Chair of the Committee
9:20 a.m. Briefing on the ONC Agenda
- David Blumenthal, National Coordinator for Health Information Technology
9:45 a.m. Meaningful Use Workgroup Update
- Paul Tang, Chair
- George Hricpsak, Co-Chair
9:55 a.m. Certification/Adoption Workgroup Update
- Paul Egerman, Co-Chair
- Marc Probst, Co-Chair
10:00 a.m. Information Exchange Workgroup Update & Recommendations
- Deven McGraw, Chair
- Micky Tripathi, Co-Chair
10:30 a.m. NHIN Workgroup: Membership, Scope
- David Lansky, Chair
- Danny Weitzner, Co-Chair
Privacy & Security Policy Workgroup: Membership, Scope
- Deven McGraw, Chair
- Rachel Block, Co-Chair
Strategic Plan Workgroup: Membership, Scope
- Paul Tang, Chair
- Jodi Daniel, Co-Chair
11:45 a.m. LUNCH BREAK
12:30 p.m. Panel on Health Plans
- Charles Kennedy, WellPoint
- Julie Klapstein, CEO, Availity
- Andrew Slavitt, CEO, Ingenix
- Catherine MacLean, WellPoint
- Andrew Wiesenthal, Kaiser Permanente
2:00 p.m. Briefing from the HIT Standards Committee
- Dixie Baker, Privacy & Security Workgroup|
- Aneesh Chopra, Implementation Workgroup
2:30 p.m. Public Comment
2:45 p.m. Adjourn

To participate by Web or Telephone
Webconference (test prior to meeting)
Audio: 
US toll free:   1-877-705-6006
International Direct:  1-201-689-8557
Confirmation Code: HIT Committee Meeting

For NHIN Agenda on Dec 16, 2009 see earlier post on e-Healthcare Marketing.

FAQs Update: Community College Workforce Training Program

FAQs Update: Community College Workforce Training Program
Accessed from ONC site on Dec 8, 2009.
Please note:
Questions are organized by category. ONC FAQ pages are updated frequently, so please check back often.

Question Categories:
     A. Background/General FAQs (Updated 12/8/09)
     B. Application FAQs (Updated 11/25/09)
     C. Award FAQs (Updated 12/8/09)
     D. Funding FAQs (Updated 11/25/09)

QUESTIONS
A. Background/General FAQs (Updated 12/8/09)
A1. What is a Community College Consortium?
A2. What constitutes a health information technology professional?
A3. What is a non-degree program?
A4. How does the CCC relate to other grants being offered by ONC?
A5. Does each Community College Consortium have to grant institutional certificates of completion?
A6. How should the training programs accommodate each trainee’s skill gap?
A7. What level of flexibility (to enable each trainee to enroll in courses) do each Consortium need to display?
A8. Does each Community College have to offer training for all six roles?
A9. What is the role of each Member Community College?
A10. What happens if the Community College cannot begin training before September 30th, 2010?
A11. Where can applicants find modifications to the FOA?
A12. What type of reporting will be required of successful recipients?
A13. Will awardees need to develop the education materials that will be used in this program?
A14.  In section 3016, subsection (c), number (2), it says “Programs designed to be completed in less than six months”.  Does this mean that the students enrolling in the program will be finished with the coursework in six months and ready to join the workforce?  Or, does it mean that the program itself will be completed and ready to begin enrolling students within six months of the funding?
A15.  Will ONC host webinar or workshop for prospective applicants?
A16.  How large should a consortium be to be competitive?
A17.  We would like to be considered by applicants as a potential “member” community college.  Is there a list of interested CC’s on which we can post contact information?

B. Application FAQs (Updated 11/25/09)
B1. Who may apply for a grant?
B2. What are the key due dates for application?
B3. Can we mail our letter of intent to apply or submit it through grants.gov (or use any other format than the email address specified)?

C. Award FAQs (Updated 12/8/09)
C1. When will awards be made?
C2. How will applicants be notified of an award?
C3.  Would you please clarify that only one award will be given for each region? I.e., In our region (Arizona, California and Nevada) only one award will be given with one Institution being the lead Institution and the others (both within and outside the lead Institution state) with sub-awards?
C4.  Will awardees need to develop the education materials that will be used in this program?
C5.  If my institution can be a lead awardee, will we also be eligible to submit a proposal for the second (as yet unreleased) FOA for curriculum development?

D. Funding FAQs (Updated 11/25/09)
D1. Is funding renewable?
D2.  What will the duration of the grants be and how much will be available per year?

Technical Assistance Teleconferences 1) December 16, 2009 12:00 p.m. (noon) EST
2) January 15, 2010 CALL IN DETAILS TO COME LATER. Watch ONC Web site.

See earlier post and summary and links to ONC announcements on Community College Consortia Workforce Program on e-Healthcare Marketing.

NHIN Workgroup of HIT Policy Cmte Public Hearing: Dec 16, 2009

The HIT Policy Committee’s NHIN Workgroup 
Public Hearing: Wed, Dec 16, 2009
10 am to 1 pm/Eastern Time
Excerpted from email announcement 12/9/09.

Topic for discussion: Directory Services and Certificates
NOTE: The Workgroup will go into CLOSED SESSION at 1:15 pm/Eastern Time. 

Public Dial-in Number:  (877) 709-8152
Webcast:  http://altarum.na3.acrobat.com/HITpolicy

Agenda
Wednesday, December 16, 2009 – 10:00 am to 1:00 pm [Eastern Time]
Omni Shoreham Hotel, 2500 Calvert Street, NW, Washington, DC

  • 10:00 a.m. Call to Order – Judy Sparrow, Office of the National Coordinator
  • 10:05 a.m. Level Setting & Review of Objectives
    • Farzad Mostashari, Office of the National Coordinator
    • David Lansky, Chair
    • Danny Weitzner, Co-Chair
  • 10:20 a.m. Summary of Approaches for NHIN Meaningful Use in 2011 & Components of the NHIN
    • Farzad Mostashari, Office of the National Coordinator
  • 10:40 a.m. Testimony from SureScripts
    • Rick Ratliff [invited]
  • 11:00 a.m. Testimony from Council for Affordable Quality Healthcare
    • Robin Thomashauer [invited]
  • 11.20 p.m. Testimony from Emdeon
    • Khris Olberg [invited]
  • 11.40 p.m. Testimony from Social Security Administration
    • James Borland
  • 12:00 p.m. Testimony from Federation of State Medical Boards [invited]
    • Martin Crane, Chair or
    • Humayun Chaudhry, President and Chief Executive Officer
  • 12:20 p.m. Public Comments
  • 12:50 p.m. Summary and Closing
    • Farzad Mostashari, Office of the National Coordinator
    • David Lansky, Chair
    • Danny Weitzner, Co-Chair
  • 1:00 p.m. PUBLIC MEETING ADJOURN
  • 1:15 p.m. CLOSED WORKGROUP SESSION
    5:00 p.m. ADJOURN

END OF EMAIL ANNOUNCMENT

ONC NHIN RESOURCE PAGE:  UPDATED DECEMBER 2009
    Data Use and Recipricol Support Agreement (DURSA) (pdf)
NHIN Tomorrow

See an earlier post prior to NHIN meeting on Nov 20, 2009 and related information from e-Healthcare Marketing.

Blumenthal announces Regional Center speedup and HHS certification timing

Blumenthal announces Regional Center speedup
and HHS certification timing

In the December 7, 2009 post on Health IT Buzz Blog, National Coordinator of Health IT David Blumenthal wrote thatdue to a strong response for applications, there will be approximately 30 extension center awards made in January and the remainder  in March.” About 70 are planned in total.

In reference to moving HHS certification of Electronic Health Records systems beyond the current exclusive CCHIT role, Blumenthal noted ”We also anticipate publishing in early 2010 our proposed plans for establishing a new certification program, which we believe will enable most vendors to have their products certified by 2011. And there will be a number of other awards and programs rolling out between now and the end of the first quarter.”

In a previous post on e-Healthcare Marketing, we shared the latest version of the Regonal Extension Centers (REC) grant announcement, which appeared to indicate that close to 40 RECs would be recognized in January 2010.

Medscape One-on-One: Rapidly Unfolding Health Information Technology

Medscape One-on-One: Rapidly Unfolding Health IT
Video Interview with Ashish Jha, Health Policy Expert
On December 2, 2009, Medscape inaugurated a new One-on-One video Interview series, starting with its first guest Ashish Jha,
a physician-scientist with the Harvard School of Public Health, whose paper in the New England Journal of Medicine earlier in 2009 pointed out the low rate of EHR implementation in the country. Jha discusses the article and the implications of the HITECH act. (Interview may require registration.)

NEJM, April 16, 2009: “Use of Electronic Health Records in U.S. Hospitals.” Written by Ashish K. Jha, MD, MPH, et. al. (Et. al. includes ONC Director David Blumenthal.) This article is available to public for free.

What does agriculture have to do with healthcare reform?

What does agriculture have to do with healthcare reform?
New Yorker writer and surgeon Atul Gawande takes a look
In The New Yorker issue of December 14, 2009, Atuk Gawande, a New Yorker staff writer and Harvard surgeon
, looks at the healthcare reform bill in the US Senate and compares it to the successful history of the US Department of Agriculture’s Extension program in the 20th century. Gawande also talked to the agricultural agent for his home town, Athens, Ohio, where Gawande’s parents are retired physicians. It’s a story of town by town–farm by farm–work sharing knowledgable advice locally, learning by example, and using subject matter experts.  And while the Senate bill contains a “hodgepodge” of trial programs, Gawande concludes that mix is a necessary formula for reforming healthcare. 

In reference to digitization of health information, Gawande states “Among the most important, and least noticed, provisions in the reform legislation is one in the House bill to expand our ability to collect national health statistics. The poverty of our health-care information is an embarrassment.” While Electronic Health Records are not the focus of this article,  the Ag Department’s Extension program was the model for ONC’s Regional Extension Center Program, and the article is worth reading for understanding that role.

For more on ONC’s Regional Extension Centers, see e-Healthcare Marketing archives.