HLN Learnings  Newsletter
HHS Releases Landmark Report: Reforming America's Healthcare System
On December 3, 2018, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released with little fanfare what seems to be a landmark report, Reforming America's Healthcare System Through Choice and Competition . The 120-page report focuses on how (in its opinion) government policy of the last few years has suppressed competition, increased prices for healthcare, and limited choices for consumers. Though rich in detail as it tries to prove each of these points, the more than fifty recommendations are often broad and aspirational rather than practical. See our blog with comments on this report.
HLN Conference Update
2019 ISDS Annual Meeting: HLN is pleased to be a Patron-level sponsor of the 18th Annual International Society for Disease Surveillance ( ISDS )  Annual Meeting being held in San Diego, CA from January 30 – February 1, 2019. This conference expects to bring together more than 400 participants with over 220 presentations and ten workshops dedicated to the advancement of the science and practice of biosurveillance. HLN will be attending the meeting with a table in the exhibit area as well as two presentations, one with Denver Health featuring ICE , HLN’s Open Source immunization evaluation and forecasting system, and one on Electronic Case Reporting strategies using the Reportable Condition Knowledge Management System ( RCKMS ).

2018 Centricity User Group Meeting (CHUG): On November 10, 2018 at the Centricity Healthcare User Group (CHUG)  Fall meeting  HLN partnered with  Health One Technologies  (Health1) and  Allied Physicians Group  (Mellville, NY) in a presentation where we discussed and demonstrated an implementation of GE Centricity that provides real-time decision support at the point of care using ICE , HLN’s Open Source immunization evaluation and forecasting system.
Dr. Noam Arzt named Fellow of the American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA)  - see details
Is the US Finally Ready to Get Serious About Biodefense?
Biological and other disaster threats – whether accidental, driven by forces of nature, or intentional – pose fairly grave risks to the United States and the world. Situational awareness has been a conspicuous topic ever since the 9/11 attacks and the anthrax scare that followed shortly thereafter. Since then we have experienced numerous disasters. See our blog which discusses new developments on this topic, and the emerging strategies the Federal government is considering.
HLN Comments on Two Federal Documents
On November 28, 2018 the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) released a draft   Strategy on Reducing Regulatory and Administrative Burden Relating to the Use of Health IT and EHRs  for public comment. The strategy aims to reduce the time and effort and improve the functionality of electronic health records (EHRs) for clinicians, hospitals, and other healthcare organizations. See our blog with a public health perspective.

In October, 2018 the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued a  Request for Information  (RFI) for a Natural Test Collaborative (NTC). Through a series of questions, the RFI seeks opinions and information about “The development of a national testbed (notionally called the National Test Collaborative (NTC)) for real-world testing of health information technology (IT)” and “Approaches for creating a sustainable infrastructure” to achieve it. See our blog with comments on this RFI.