Welcome to the new Federal Advisory Committee Blog! Since many of you may be unfamiliar with Federal Advisory Committees (FACAs) and their role at ONC, I wanted to give you some background and a preview of what you can look forward to on this blog.

“FACAs” get their name from the Federal Advisory Committee Act, which lays out the guidelines for such committees.  FACAs are advisory and intended to provide external guidance to the government.  Typically members of the group are not federal employees. They are also very open committees – meetings are held in public, information on the meetings is posted in the Federal Register, and all FACA records are readily available. At the very root of the FACA mandate is transparency and collaboration.

ONC has two FACAs – the HIT Policy Committee and the HIT Standards Committee. These committees were established to obtain outside advice or recommendations on key health information technology topics from leaders who represent various stakeholder groups. HIT Policy Committee members were selected by the U.S. Government Accountability Office, the Department of Health and Human Services, and Congress.  The HIT Standards Committee members were selected, invited, and appointed by the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services. Current members are listed on http://healthit.hhs.gov.  In my role at ONC, I serve as the liaison between these Committees and ONC.

In the spirit of transparency and collaboration, this blog will help ONC’s FACAs open a broader dialogue with you. In the months to come, we will use this blog to let you know about key FACA activities.  Since the FACAs do not meet frequently, there will be periods when the blog is not active.  I hope you not only find the information that will be posted to this blog interesting and insightful, but, above all, that you heed our call to join this important conversation.

– Judy Sparrow, Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT