Top News
AMIA's First-ever Virtual Hill Day
On April 2 and April 3, AMIA came together to discuss ensuring responsible AI integration in healthcare and the reduction of documentation burden and access increase. AMIA members met with approximately 40 Congressional members from the AI Task Force, Senate HELP and Finance Committees, and House Ways and Means Committee.
To encourage innovation while prioritizing patient wellbeing through responsible development and oversight of healthcare AI, AMIA recommended the following:
- Require transparency in the function of AI tools.
- Validate and monitor healthcare AI.
- Minimize or limit any possible increase in documentation burden for providers and patients caused by policies regulating the use of AI tools in healthcare.
- Work directly with clinical informaticians when developing and implementing national AI policies.
The AMIA 25x5 Task Force's aim is to alleviate documentation burden on U.S. health professionals. To help reach their goals, AMIA recommended:
- Prior authorization (PA) be reformed due to the required onerous documentation needed to support it. PA is a major source of burden for clinicians, health systems, and patients in need of medically necessary care. AMIA members recommended reforming prior authorization by passing the:
- Improving Seniors' Timely Access to Care (Seniors') Act and
- Getting Over Lengthy Delays in Care as Required by Doctors (GOLD CARD) Act (H.R. 4968).
- Funding research on the economic impact of excess documentation burden.
See what AMIA advocated for during the 2024 Virtual Hill Day.
AMIA 2024 Virtual Hill Day Recap Webinar
Please join the AMIA Public Policy team on April 23 at 12:00 p.m. ET for the Virtual Hill Day Recap webinar. During the webinar, you will hear about the connections and progress made, along with experiences from the AMIA's first-ever Virtual Hill Day. Additionally, you will learn what this means for AMIA in the future and how AMIA can continue to build on this momentum. There will be time allotted for questions and answers.
Register for Virtual Hill Day the webinar.
NLM Webinar Introducing the Dataset Catalog
AMIA will be co-hosting a webinar with the National Library for Medicine (NLM) on the beta version of the Dataset Catalog on April 8 at 2:00 p.m. ET. Peter Seibert, Librarian, User Services and Collections Division at NLM and Teresa Zayas Caban, PhD, FACMI, Assistant Director for Policy Development at NLM, will be our distinguished presenters. The Dataset Catalog is intended to improve the discoverability and reuse of research data by making it easier for users to search, find, and connect biomedical datasets. During this beta phase, NLM is inviting users to explore the tool and provide feedback on both the tool and the underlying data model. User feedback obtained during this phase will inform future tool development.
During this webinar, the speakers will discuss the importance of enabling discovery and advancing findability of biomedical research data and provide an overview of the recently launched Dataset Catalog and its underlying data model.
Register for Dataset Catalog webinar.
Regulatory
ONC Federal Health IT Strategic Plan Released for Comment
The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) released their Federal Health IT Strategic Plan for 2024-2030 draft for public comment. The draft plan includes four goals with objectives for each goal:
- Promote Health and Wellness – improving health experiences and outcomes for individuals, populations, and communities.
- Enhance the Delivery and Experience of Care – improving how patients and caregivers experience care, how health care providers and others across the health care continuum deliver care, and how health plans reimburse for care.
- Accelerate Research and Innovation – advancing opportunities for individuals, researchers, technology developers, and other health IT users to accelerate scientific discovery and innovation.
- Connect the Health System with Health Data – the policy and technology components needed to support various data needs of health IT users.
ONC's public comment period on the draft Plan ends on Tuesday, May 28at 11:59 p.m. ET.
Read the draft Health IT Strategic Plan for 2024-2030.
Around the World
- NLM Office Hours for the Dataset Catalog Thursday, April 11, at 2:00 p.m. ET.
- Register for the NLM Dataset Catalog Office Hours.
- Email questions in advance of the office hours with the subject line “NLM Office Hours” to NLMTrainers@nih.gov.
- ONC Health IT Advisory Committee Meeting Thursday, April 11, from 9:30 a.m. – 3:30 p.m. ET.
- A large portion of the meeting will be a hearing on AI.
- Learn more.
- Register now.
- Health Information Technology Advisory Committee (HITAC) Annual Report for Fiscal Year 2023
AMIA's Washington Download is your source for health informatics policy news and information from around the Beltway, covering action from the Hill, the Administration, and important AMIA collaborators.