The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) released a draft of their 2024–2030 Federal Health IT Strategic Plan (Draft Strategic Plan) on March 27, 2024, updating the 2020-2025 Federal Health IT Strategic Plan. In collaboration with 25 other federal organizations, the purpose of this strategic Plan is to create overall improvements in health care by aligning its health IT policies, programs, and investments and to signal priorities to the industry. This Draft Strategic Plan builds on the previous Plan, and includes objectives to address challenges in our healthcare landscape post-COVID as well as recognizing current disparities in health care access and outcomes.

ONC has stated that the purpose of the Draft Strategic Plan is to guide federal government efforts toward EHI access, exchange, and use that improves individual access to EHI; health care delivery, experience, competition, and affordability; health equity; public health; health research; and connecting health and human services data. The Draft Strategic Plan contains four goals and accompanying objectives and strategies. Privacy and security considerations are noted throughout, as are other principles including promoting safety and encouraging innovation and competition. The goals and objectives are listed below. We note that while the Draft Strategic Plan is intended to set priorities, it seems to be very comprehensive, with 90 different strategies and outcomes, and any entity that is involved with health IT will find something of interest.

Goal 1: Promote Health and Wellness for Individuals, Populations, and Communities

  • Individuals are empowered to manage their health
  • Individuals and populations experience modern and equitable health care
  • Communities are healthier and safer

Goal 2: Enhance the delivery and experience of care for patients, caregivers, health care providers, public health professionals, and others in the health care continuum

  • Providers deliver safe, equitable, high-quality, and improved care
  • Patients experience expanded access to quality care and reduced or eliminated health disparities
  • Health care is improved through greater competition and transparency
  • Providers experience reduced regulatory and administrative burden
  • The health care workforce uses health IT with confidence

Goal 3: Accelerate research and innovation through the collaborative efforts of researchers, technology developers, and other health IT users

  • Researchers and other health IT users have appropriate access to health data to drive individual and population health improvement
  • Individual and population-level research and analysis are enhanced by health IT
  • Researchers advance health equity by using health data that includes underrepresented groups

Goal 4: Connect the health system with health data for all health IT users

  • Development and use of health IT capabilities continues to advance
  • Health IT users have clear and shared expectations for data sharing
  • Underserved communities and populations have access to infrastructure that supports health IT use
  • Individuals' electronic health information is protected, private, and secure
  • Communities are supported by modern and integrated U.S. public health data systems and infrastructure

ONC is seeking public comment on the Plan by May 28, 2024. Stakeholders may submit comments through the ONC Health IT Feedback and Inquiry Portal. We encourage everyone to look at the details and consider commenting as this will impact priorities of various agencies over the next 5 years.

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