The deadline for the EHR Accessibility Module Challenge is slowly approaching, with less than two weeks to go!
Sponsored by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC), this challenge emphasizes accessibility and usability in health IT, which are high priority issues for the disabled community. A consumer-oriented system providing easy-to-use access to health information would be a valuable tool and significantly improve the health of disabled individuals. First place winners are awarded $60,000 and opportunity to demo at one of Health 2.0 premier conferences or at another national conference. The second place winner will receive $20,000 and third place, $5,000.
Improving Access to Electronic Health Records
HITs and EHRs hold great promise in improving the health outcomes and coordination of care for people with disabilities. However, the accessibility and usability of HIT is a matter of serious concern to people of diverse disabilities, including those who have vision, hearing, intellectual, manual dexterity, mental health, developmental and other types of disabilities. Building an accessible system from the ground up can be more cost effective than retrofitting current ones to suit this large group and can prevent future interoperability issues.
ONC’s mission includes reducing health disparities, ensuring secure and protected patient health information and reducing health care costs. According to a 2000 from the U.S. Bureau of Census, people with disabilities constitute 19.3% of the non-institutionalized population 5 years of age or older. Among adults, individuals with disabilities are four times as likely to report having fair or poor health compared to those without a disability (40% vs. 10%) as well. This populace faces substantial difficulties with accessing and receiving care and the lack of coordinated care for this population is particularly costly. Health expenditures for people with disabilities are estimated at $400 billion, more than a quarter of all heath
expenditures.
Help improve accessibility and usability for EHRs!
Deadline to Submit: July 23, 2012
Categories: Uncategorized
