Three Winners in HHS Easy EHR Issue Reporting Challenge
"Helping reduce the burden of health IT continues to be a key area of focus at the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, and we anticipate the winning submissions to the Easy EHR Issue Reporting Challenge will help with those efforts," said Dr. Don Rucker, M.D., HHS national coordinator for health information technology.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has announced three winners of its Easy EHR Issue Reporting Challenge. The winners created software tools that could help clinicians report electronic health record usability and safety issues faster, more efficiently, and in alignment with their regular clinical workflow, according to the agency, which said the challenge is part of its ongoing efforts to improve the safe use of health IT and electronic health records.
"Helping reduce the burden of health IT continues to be a key area of focus at the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, and we anticipate the winning submissions to the Easy EHR Issue Reporting Challenge will help with those efforts," said Dr. Don Rucker, M.D., national coordinator for health information technology. "Once the winning submissions reach production, we expect to see how reporting safety issues can be less burdensome for health care providers."
The winners are:
- First place - James Madison Advisory Group. Its solution for reporting possible safety events launches through a system tray icon or hotkey on any Windows 8 or higher installation. Use of the tray icon or hotkey keeps the user from exiting the EHR workflow, regardless of the EHR platform. The tool exports in the HHS Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality Common Formats XML and PDF, captures screenshots, and simplifies the report delivery process. The winning submission has been awarded $45,000.
- Second place – Pegwin, which provides a software platform that can create and send a safety or usability report in as few as three clicks. Using contextual menus and design intuitive to the user, the software makes completion of Common Formats reporting as automated as possible. The second place submission has been awarded $25,000.
- Third place – Jared Schwartz and team. Their submission uses a browser plug-in to Google Chrome that can integrate with IT ticketing systems, enabling more consistent capture of safety issues. The user can provide additional information immediately or save for a more convenient time. The third place submission has been awarded $10,000.
"Improving the safety of health IT remains an important priority," said Andy Gettinger, M.D., ONC's chief clinical officer. "We believe that making it easier for end users to report will help in that goal."