“The draft Interoperability Roadmap released today by the Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) is a very welcome, very promising, and very smart next step in the effort to create a health information technology (IT) system that will make health care more patient- and family-centered in this country. We are especially pleased that the new roadmap focuses on interoperability not just among providers, but also patients and their family caregivers, recognizing them as equal partners in the continuum of care and in electronic access to and use of health information. Only by doing that will we make health IT the engine of successful reform it can and should be.

Achieving the ‘Triple Aim’ — better care, better health and lower cost — absolutely depends on patients being equal and engaged partners in these efforts. Only if that happens will we realize the promise of this moment.

We look forward to reading this new roadmap carefully and developing comments, but it is already clear that it is a step forward for the health care system and the country. Along with the payment reform Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell announced on Monday, and the launch of the Health Care Transformation Task Force on Wednesday, this has shaped up to be an important week in the quest to make our health care system more patient- and family-centered. National Coordinator Karen DeSalvo and the ONC have done the nation a service with the plan released today.”