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    "title" : "Empowerment, Innovation, and Improved Health Outcomes: the Blue Button Initiative |Digital.gov",
    "description": "Empowerment, Innovation, and Improved Health Outcomes: the Blue Button Initiative",
    "home_page_url" : "/preview/gsa/digitalgov.gov/bc-archive-content-3/","feed_url" : "/preview/gsa/digitalgov.gov/bc-archive-content-3/2015/03/27/empowerment-innovation-and-improved-health-outcomes-the-blue-button-initiative/index.json","item" : [
    {"title" :"Empowerment, Innovation, and Improved Health Outcomes: the Blue Button Initiative","summary" : "Finding and getting access to our own health information can be a complex process. And most of us don’t really think about having our health information readily accessible until we really need it – like in the event of an emergency, or when switching doctors or traveling. Combing through stacks of paperwork and contacting providers","date" : "2015-03-27T10:00:40-04:00","date_modified" : "2025-01-27T19:42:55-05:00","authors" : {"awichman" : "Ashley Wichman"},"topics" : {
        
            "application-programming-interface" : "Application programming interface",
            "emerging-tech" : "Emerging tech",
            "open-data" : "Open data",
            "open-government" : "Open government",
            "software-engineering" : "Software engineering"
            },"branch" : "bc-archive-content-3",
      "filename" :"2015-03-27-empowerment-innovation-and-improved-health-outcomes-the-blue-button-initiative.md",
      
      "filepath" :"news/2015/03/2015-03-27-empowerment-innovation-and-improved-health-outcomes-the-blue-button-initiative.md",
      "filepathURL" :"https://github.com/GSA/digitalgov.gov/blob/bc-archive-content-3/content/news/2015/03/2015-03-27-empowerment-innovation-and-improved-health-outcomes-the-blue-button-initiative.md",
      "editpathURL" :"https://github.com/GSA/digitalgov.gov/edit/bc-archive-content-3/content/news/2015/03/2015-03-27-empowerment-innovation-and-improved-health-outcomes-the-blue-button-initiative.md","slug" : "empowerment-innovation-and-improved-health-outcomes-the-blue-button-initiative","url" : "/preview/gsa/digitalgov.gov/bc-archive-content-3/2015/03/27/empowerment-innovation-and-improved-health-outcomes-the-blue-button-initiative/","content" :"\u003cdiv class=\"image\"\u003e\n  \u003cimg\n    src=\"https://s3.amazonaws.com/digitalgov/_legacy-img/2015/03/600-x-400-Medical-form-Slawomir-Fajer-iStock-Thinkstock-ThinkstockPhotos-167343015.jpg\"\n    alt=\"Medical form and laptop\"/\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eFinding and getting access to our own health information can be a complex process. And most of us don’t really think about having our health information readily accessible until we really need it – like in the event of an emergency, or when switching doctors or traveling. Combing through stacks of paperwork and contacting providers is daunting for even the most organized among us. However, this familiar scenario is being reimagined.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe \u003ca href=\"http://www.healthit.gov/patients-families/blue-button/about-blue-button\"\u003eBlue Button Initiative\u003c/a\u003e is a partnership between the federal government and the healthcare industry focused on increasing individuals’ access to their health information electronically and in a format they can use and re-use. Increased transparency and easier access to information empowers people to make informed decisions about their health, care for their family members, share information with providers, and check their information for accuracy. The initiative is led by the \u003ca href=\"http://www.healthit.gov/newsroom/about-onc\"\u003eOffice of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology\u003c/a\u003e (ONC) in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch2 id=\"data-for-patient-education-and-empowerment\"\u003eData for Patient Education and Empowerment\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe \u003ca href=\"http://bluebuttonconnector.healthit.gov/\"\u003eBlue Button Connector website\u003c/a\u003e educates people about all the various places where their health data may reside. Health records are maintained by a variety of organizations: health insurance companies, clinics, hospitals, pharmacies, labs, and immunization registries. Visitors to the Blue Button Connector website can search for an organization and be taken directly to the place where they can follow log-in directions to access their information.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"image\"\u003e\n  \u003cimg\n    src=\"https://s3.amazonaws.com/digitalgov/_legacy-img/2015/03/250-x-210-Blue-Button-Initiative-logo.jpg\"\n    alt=\"The Blue Button® logo.\"/\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\nThrough the commitments from more than 600 organizations who have taken the \u003ca href=\"http://www.healthit.gov/patients-families/pledge-info\"\u003eBlue Button Pledge\u003c/a\u003e, the ONC team estimates that more than 150 million Americans have access to data from their healthcare providers, health insurance companies, labs, and/or pharmacies. The Blue Button symbolizes placing control of health data in patients’ hands, enabling the idea of ‘consumer empowerment’ to take on real and practical meaning.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAccessing and using one’s own health information is still a new concept for most Americans and the experience of gathering and aggregating health data is still burdensome, especially in rural and underserved communities.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch2 id=\"data-for-innovation\"\u003eData for Innovation\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eData flowing from institutions to consumers through Blue Button also serves as fuel for innovation. The Connector provides a \u003ca href=\"http://bluebuttonconnector.healthit.gov/apps/\"\u003elisting of healthcare apps\u003c/a\u003e that are available to help people make use of their data. The Connector also provides entrepreneurs with transparency regarding what types of electronic health data are available and from where to stimulate the development of new products and services for consumers. The Connector is built on an open source API, with \u003ca href=\"http://bluebuttonconnector.healthit.gov/developers/\"\u003edocumentation\u003c/a\u003e available on the Blue Button website.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTo support collaboration, agencies have adopted an open government approach, making detailed information, including Blue Button sample files, available to the public via \u003ca href=\"http://www.data.gov/\"\u003eData.gov\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch2 id=\"looking-to-the-future\"\u003eLooking to the Future\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eONC and its federal partners have identified several future focus areas for Blue Button, as the initiative continues to build momentum:\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eMonitoring patient access\u003c/strong\u003e to ensure the benefits are accruing to all\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eIdentifying and removing any barriers\u003c/strong\u003e to patients exercising their legal right to their health information in an electronic format if it is available that way\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eContinuing to conduct research\u003c/strong\u003e to understand and improve the consumer experience of accessing and using digital health information\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eContinuing to get the word out\u003c/strong\u003e about the importance of having access to health information and to encourage people to take action to gather their information\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eDemonstrating Blue Button’s impact\u003c/strong\u003e on health outcomes, health costs, and other important indicators through community-led demonstrations\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePrevious research has already shown that Blue Button is seen as a valuable tool: 87% of respondents in a \u003ca href=\"http://www.hsrd.research.va.gov/research/abstracts.cfm?Project_ID=2141701657\"\u003eVeteran Affairs survey\u003c/a\u003e perceived that having access to Blue Button information was helpful to their care provider in making decisions about their care.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHHS is looking ahead at how new data sets, such as streams of data coming from “Internet of Things” connected devices, will lead to breakthroughs in personalized medicine, independent living for seniors, and more engaged consumers.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDevelopers in the federal space are also moving forward with Blue Button projects, and \u003ca href=\"http://bluebuttonconnector.healthit.gov/apps/\"\u003eapps using Blue Button standards\u003c/a\u003e can be found on the Connector site.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch2 id=\"consumer-health-information-exchange-via-apis\"\u003eConsumer Health Information Exchange via APIs\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"image\"\u003e\n  \u003cimg\n    src=\"https://s3.amazonaws.com/digitalgov/_legacy-img/2015/03/250-x-260-Blue-Button-Initiative-app-GenieMD-with-4.5-ratings-from-many-Apple-and-Android-users.jpg\"\n    alt=\"Screen capture of one of the Blue Button Initiative apps, GenieMD, that displays a 4.5 ratings from Apple and Android users. It\u0026#39;s summary says, GenieMD easily tracks, securely stores and conveniently shares your health profile from the palm of your hand.\"/\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\nBlue Button is supported by a portfolio of standards, including those developed by \u003ca href=\"http://www.hl7.org/index.cfm\"\u003eHealth Level Seven International\u003c/a\u003e (HL7), a not-for-profit organization that develops standards for the exchange, integration, sharing, and retrieval of electronic health information. HL7’s Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR) create machine and human readable health standards that can be easily transported via secure Internet protocol over HTTPS (RESTful API).\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eGajen Sunthara, Presidential Innovation Fellow at ONC, is building a public facing FHIR server within ONC’s Standards Implementation Testing Environment (SITE).\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“This public facing FHIR server will allow startups and enterprises to build innovative health software applications with our sample data sets that will output JSON/XML in FHIR specifications standards,” Sunthara said. “For developers, this is music to their ears when working with RESTful API’s using JSON data sets.”\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch2 id=\"blue-button-on-fhir\"\u003eBlue Button on FHIR\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMark Scrimshire, HHS Entrepreneur-in-Residence at the Centers for Medicare \u0026amp; Medicaid Services (CMS), is taking the FHIR Server code base developed by Sunthara and integrating it into a Blue Button on FHIR RESTful API data service for Medicare beneficiaries, using the \u003ca href=\"https://www.mymedicare.gov/\"\u003eMyMedicare website\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis work includes defining a CMS Blue Button structured data format in JSON and XML, which can be used by Blue Button on FHIR to enable beneficiaries to connect their CMS data to the applications and services they trust, such as third-party mobile applications. This work also supports the health data interoperability objectives in HHS’s \u003ca href=\"http://www.nih.gov/precisionmedicine/\"\u003ePrecision Medicine initiative\u003c/a\u003e.\u003cem\u003eIf you’re interested in getting involved with Blue Button, FHIR, or any of ONC’s work to support patient engagement and innovation, contact the team on Twitter: Maya Uppaluru (\u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/@mayauppaluru\"\u003e@mayauppaluru\u003c/a\u003e), Simone Myrie (\u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/@MyrieTash\"\u003e@myrietash\u003c/a\u003e), and Erin Siminerio (\u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/@epoetter\"\u003e@epoetter\u003c/a\u003e).\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n"}
  ]
}