“The Office of the National Coordinator’s (ONC’s) Nationwide Interoperability Roadmap released today is an important step forward in creating a learning health system in which all individuals, their families and care providers can send, receive, find and use electronic health information. We commend ONC for emphasizing in the Roadmap the role that patients and families play as partners in the continuum of care, and the need to engage them in electronic access to and use of health information. This is a welcome, powerful and badly needed new tool that can advance the kind of care consumers want and the nation needs.

We are happy to see that individual and family access to, and use of, health data and shared decision-making are now part of the core definition of interoperability. We are extremely pleased to see that the new Roadmap includes a call for consumer engagement in the development of tools, a commitment by ONC to improve access to information for individuals, and strong support for using patient-generated health data in health care and in health research.

The new Interoperability Roadmap supports patients, family caregivers and providers alike in harnessing the power of data access for shared decision-making. Together with the recently released Federal Health IT Strategic Plan, these documents signify an important national commitment to patient- and family-centered care.   

We look forward to partnering with ONC to reach the goals set forth in the Interoperability Roadmap and to leverage the fundamental role health information technology plays in transforming our health care system into one that delivers better care, better health and better value.”