White House Requests EHR Help From Developers In Blue Button Initiative

By Megan Williams, contributing writer

The White House has announced an appeal to developers to pull recruits for their open source community. The goal is to expand the adoption of interoperable EHRs.

According to the White House, the Blue Button concept is simple: “consumers should be able to securely access their own health information and share it with healthcare providers, caregivers, and others they trust.”

History

The initiative was launched in 2010 and has since been expanded to more than 150 million Americans in the form of Blue Button-enabled tools that allow them to access their health information from sources including healthcare providers, health insurance companies, medical labs, and state health information networks.

Blue Button is administered by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health (taken over from the Department of Veterans Affairs two years ago), along with the Department of Health and Human Services, and will allow consumers to pull a digital copy of their health records through participating patient data administrators. So far, about 500 data holders have signed on to Blue Button.

Security

As the initiative progresses, security is becoming more important. Blue Button strives to make PHI (protected health information) available in secure, simple, and standard formats that will help encourage the development of consumer applications and devices that will aid patients and consumers in managing their healthcare, and sharing their data. Companies including Walgreens, Kroger, CVS Caremark, Rite Aid, and Safeway have already joined the Blue Button community.

Open Source Needs

According to U.S. Deputy Chief Technology Officer Ryan Panchadsaram, there are multiple resources for developers to tap into. They include a direct implementation guide, a toolkit, and Blue Button trust bundles to start.

At the same time, Panchadsaram is urging developers to increase their efforts and develop APIs that connect directly with the Blue Button EHR program as part of the effort to connect with users. According to U.S. CTO Todd Park, “It's the patient’s data. The principle that actually sits at the heart of the whole Blue Button movement is that patients should be able to get secure access to their own information, to their own data, and that very simple principle, I think, is one that if we follow as a country can help unlock all kinds of good for patients.”

To read more on government health IT initiatives, please visit HealthIT.gov’s provider and professional portal.