The following statement was released today by Douglas B. Fridsma, MD, PhD, FACP, FACMI, President and CEO, AMIA regarding a letter to the HELP Committee:
The rules proposed by ONC are an important step towards empowering patients and improving interoperability. The use of more modern, more accurate standards and the widespread availability of application programing interfaces (APIs) will fundamentally transform how patients and clinicians interact with and use clinical data. However, these advances are joined by new policies for information blocking with far-reaching implications. Today, we ask Congress to be diligent in their oversight of ONC’s rule and we urge more Congressional attention to the lack of consumer protections outside the HIPAA-regulated environment.