Key Principles and Recommendations for an Oversight Framework for Patient Safety and Health IT: Key Findings of Bipartisan Policy Center Report

During the week of March 18, 2013, the Energy and Commerce Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives held a series of hearings focused on health information technology (IT), how innovation can benefit patients, and how regulation affects innovation.
Policy discussions are now underway to determine the types of oversight that should be applied to assure safety in its development and use. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is now developing policies to use health IT to make health care safer as well as continuously improve the safety of health IT. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Safety and Innovation Act of 2012, signed into law in July 2012, calls for the HHS Secretary to develop—within 18 months—a proposed strategy and recommendations for a risk-based regulatory framework for health IT that promotes innovation, protects patient safety, and avoids regulatory duplication. On December 21, 2012, HHS released the Health IT Patient Safety Action and Surveillance Plan for Public Comment, which summarizes HHS’ proposed approach for addressing safety in health IT.
The Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC) has recently undertaken a five-month collaborative effort drawing upon the expertise and experiences of more than 100 leaders representing clinicians, consumers, health plans, hospitals, patient safety organizations, academic and research institutions, and software and technology companies, as well as experts in patient safety and health IT. As a result of this collaborative effort, BPC developed a set of principles and recommendations for assuring patient safety in health IT, which were released through the report, An Oversight Framework for Assuring Patient Safety in Health Information Technology, during a public event held on February 13, 2013.

This webinar will summarize the policy discussions now underway around health IT and patient safety as well as the principles, oversight framework, and recommendations included in the BPC report.
 

Learning Objectives

During this webinar, participants will learn about:

• Policies being explored by both the Administration and Congress associated with the regulation of health IT
• Principles and key elements of an oversight framework for patient safety and health IT, informed by more than 100 leaders representing clinicians, consumers, health plans, hospitals, patient safety organizations, academic research organizations, and software and technology companies, as well as experts in patient safety and health IT.
• Key recommendations for moving this oversight framework for patient safety and health IT forward, including those focused on development and adoption of standards, education and training, participation in patient safety activities such as reporting, and creation of a learning environment.

Speakers Information

Janet Marchibroda has led health innovation and health information technology (IT) efforts at the Bipartisan Policy Center over the last two years. Founded in 2007 by former Senate Majority Leaders Howard Baker, Tom Daschle, Bob Dole, and George Mitchell, the Bipartisan Policy Center is a non-profit organization that drives principled solutions through rigorous analysis, reasoned negotiation, and respectful dialogue. As part of BPC’s Health Project, which is led by Health Project co-leaders and former Senate Majority Leaders Tom Daschle (D-SD) and Bill Frist (R-TN), the Health Innovation Initiative conducts research and collaborates with experts and stakeholders across every sector of health care to develop recommendations that promote innovation and the use of IT to support improvements in the cost, quality, and patient experience of care.
Marchibroda also serves as Board Member and the initial Executive Director for Doctors Helping Doctors Transform Health Care, a non-profit, collaborative, social media effort--led primarily by doctors for doctors—to support the transformation of health care, initially through health IT.
Marchibroda previously led stakeholder engagement activities for the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology at the Department of Health and Human Services. She also served as the Chief Health Care Officer for IBM.
Marchibroda also served as the founding Chief Executive Officer for eHealth Initiative, developing consensus among leaders across every sector of health care on principles, policies and strategies for leveraging IT to drive improvements in health and health care and advocating for significant federal leadership and financial support for the use of health IT to drive positive health system change, which culminated with passage of HITECH.
Marchibroda also served as the initial Executive Director of Connecting for Health, a public-private sector initiative designed to catalyze national actions to drive electronic connectivity and an interconnected, electronic health information infrastructure; under a grant from the Markle Foundation with additional support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
Marchibroda also served as the Chief Operating Officer of the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA), a non-profit, independent organization devoted to evaluating and improving the quality of health care for Americans. She also co-founded and served as Chief Operating Officer for a for-profit organization focused on providing electronic information and publishing services for health care organizations and served as the interim Chief Operating Officer for the National Coalition for Cancer Survivorship.
She holds a B.S. in Commerce from the University of Virginia and an MBA with a concentration in organization development from George Washington University.