The 21st Century Cures Act (Cures Act), signed into law by President Obama in 2016, directed ONC to implement a standardized process for the public to report claims of possible information blocking. The information blocking claims reporting process welcomes claims of possible information blocking from anyone who believes they may have experienced or observed information blocking. Any information received by ONC in connection with a claim or suggestion of possible information blocking and that could reasonably be expected to facilitate identification of the source of the information (claimant) is protected from disclosure under the Cures Act.

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The Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement is now available. Within the health information technology (health IT) world, few things have been as elusive as a governance framework for nationwide health information exchange. When ONC was formed in 2004, the concept of a nationwide health information network—where your information could be located across the country in a click—was a big picture vision that drove the federal government’s early health IT infrastructure, standards, policy actions, and investments.

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Application programming interfaces (APIs) are powerful tools that help support interoperability in healthcare. Simply put, APIs allow a software “Application A” to interact with a software “Application B” without Application A needing to know how Application B’s software is designed internally. APIs can be used for several things, including the ability to for software applications to share information. From the example above, Application A could request information from Application B or ask Application B to place a pushpin on a map at a specific longitude and latitude.

On Monday, March 9th 2020, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) released the long awaited final rule to address information blocking and update the ONC Health IT Certification Program as directed by Congress through the 21st Century Cures Act of 2016 (the Cures Act). As a patient, a caregiver for two kids, and an only child preparing to care for aging parents, I look forward to being able to access our medical records and manage our health with the ease and convenience I already experience in most of the economy outside of health care.

Today, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC) announced the release of the 21st Century Cures Act: Interoperability, Information Blocking, and the ONC Health IT Certification Program Final Rule, which implements provisions from the 21st Century Cures Act passed by Congress. We thank Congress for the passage of the Cures Act and we look forward to implementing the final rule, which promotes patient access to their electronic health information, supports provider needs,