Stay Informed and Get Involved

• Submit your email address in the box where it says “Get email updates”.
  
  We’ll send you important messages with opportunities for laboratory professionals to support or help develop EHR and health IT related policy, standards, certification requirements, guidelines, and quality measures.

• Check out the Resources page and scan the content at the various links.
  
  Start to bridge the communication lines between IT professionals and clinical professionals. Don’t worry about needing to know it all before doing more. It takes time.

• Encourage your professional laboratory society to monitor and participate in national health IT activities.
• Submit comments when alerted to proposed regulations, guidance and quality measures.
• Update laboratory leaders on important deadlines and resource needs to support health information exchange.
• Volunteer for a Standards & Interoperability (S&I) Framework initiative.
  Look for an active initiative on the S&I website. Join one of interest to you, even if it’s already in progress. Almost all initiatives will benefit from clinical laboratory professional expertise.
• Attend or listen to ONC Federal Advisory Committee and workgroup meetings.
  • Health IT Policy Committee (HITPC)
  • Health IT Standards Committee (HITSC)
• Submit an application for future consideration on a national ONC Committee or workgroup. Encourage interested colleagues to submit their application too.

• Perform EHR assessments in your organization using the SAFER Guides
  The following four SAFER Guides are specifically noted for review of laboratory data; however elements in all SAFER Guides may have relevance to laboratory testing:
  • Test Results Reporting and Follow-up
  • Computerized Provider Order Entry with Clinical Decision Support
  • Patient Identification (relates to blood product administration, laboratory test ordering, and laboratory results retrieval and display)
  • High Priority Practices (relates to order sets, order status, use of SNOMED and LOINC, interface testing, and decision support recommending or relying on laboratory tests)

Report actual or potential (near-miss) patient safety events. Learn more