Welcome to the Health IT Buzz blog. At ONC our leadership believes there are lots of great ideas about how to use health IT and exchange electronic health information to improve outcomes and reduce costs in our health care system. The recent, unprecedented commitment of our nation to support the meaningful use of electronic health records (EHRs) has accelerated the pace of conversation. ONC and others have been listening.

Listening is critical because there is no predicting when the most intriguing thoughts and advice will pop to the surface. It could be in a hallway conversation, in testimony before an advisory committee, or in an email. It could also be on a blog. This is why we are launching the Health IT Buzz blog.

With this new blog, we hope to create a forum for engagement.  To foster a meaningful and constructive discussion, we follow these guiding principles:

• We will provide unique, individual perspectives on what’s going on at ONC
• We will post comments, except for spam and remarks that are off-topic, denigrating or offensive (more in “Comment Policy” below)
• We will reply to comments promptly, when appropriate (more in “Comment Policy” below)
• We will be respectful of your privacy (more in “Your Privacy” below)
• We will be respectful when disagreeing with others’ opinions

We want to hear from citizens, patients, health professionals, managers, policymakers, technology enthusiasts and technology skeptics. We look forward to hearing what you have to say.