Page 94 - Health Literacy, eHealth, and Communication: Putting the Consumer First: Workshop Summary

Health Literacy, eHealth, and Communication: Putting the Consumer First: Workshop Summary

eMeRGinG tooLS AnD StRAteGieS

The intent is that Healthy People 2020 create a systems view of health,
to organize it around different contexts and different important factors.
There are three high priorities in public health. First is prevention, second
is preparedness, and third is HIT.
In late 2007, the Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion,
the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technol-
ogy, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) formed a
federal interagency subgroup on health communication and information
technology. The purpose of the group is to create a vision and project a
future in which health communication and information technologies sig-
nificantly advance the goals of Healthy People 2020. Public forums, a blog
and a wiki will provide an opportunity for input from the public about
how health literacy is important and the role that health literacy should
play in the development of the framework for Healthy People 2020.
Friedman said that it is fascinating, exciting, and an enormous chal-
lenge to combine health literacy, health information technology, and health
communications as a major foundational element of the Healthy People
2020 activity. The Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) for Health
Information Technology, in collaboration with a large number of people,
has been working to conceptualize a vision of what information technol-
ogy might look like in the future and to develop a national 5-year HIT stra-
tegic plan (2008 to 2012). Efforts in this area began in 2007 and the plan is
3
in the final stages of federal clearance. The plan has two broad goals. The
first goal centers on person-focused health care. In addition to discussing
the hardware and software aspects of IT, much of what is discussed in the
plan will address the person–focused aspects of health care. Furthermore,
the plan envisions IT as a means to achieve a healthier population.
A second goal concerns the improvement of population health. The
plan defines population health as having four components: public health,
preparedness, biomedical research, and health care quality improvement.
The plan is national in scope and is federally focused, setting forth a
set of strategies that can be undertaken across a broad range of federal
agencies.
Each of the two goals in the plan has four objectives with measurable
outcomes. For the eight objectives there are a total of 43 strategies listed,
each with a milestone. Some of the milestones are near-term (i.e., 2009 or
2010), while others are longer-term (i.e., 2011 or 2012). Perhaps the most
important feature of the plan is that it will include a compendium of fed-
eral activities already under way that are related to the various objectives
of the plan and that are taking place in the agencies and departments
involved in putting the plan together.

3 The onC-Coordinated Federal Hit Strategic Plan: 00-0 was released June 3, 2008.

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