The HHS Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response and the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT have launched a new initiative designed to help spur the use of health IT in emergency medical services, EHR Intelligence reports.
About the Initiative
The Health Information Technology and EMS initiative aims "to connect the emergency care, EMS and HIT communities so they can share and discuss pilot projects, concepts and initiatives related to health information exchange," according to the forum's homepage.
Specifically, it will provide stakeholders a public forum to brainstorm and crowdsource opportunities for integrating EMS into the care continuum by removing barriers to health information exchange (Murphy, EHR Intelligence, 3/18).
In a "Health IT Buzz" blog post, Tara Holland and Kevin Horahan -- of ASPR's Emergency Care Coordination Center -- noted several challenges in sharing EMR data, including:

• Funding;
• Lack of collaboration; and
• Proprietary systems (Pedulli, Clinical Innovation & Technology, 3/18).

Source: iHealthBeat, Wednesday, March 19, 2014