The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) in the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, is working to support the technical evolution of Blue Button capabilities and widespread adoption and use of Blue Button. There are two ways you can get involved in this initiative.

Take the Blue Button Pledge

To catalyze and support organizations who support individuals having access to and using their health information to be partners in their health and health care, ONC created the "Blue Button Pledge". Taking the pledge is voluntary, and does not represent any endorsement by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services or any other part of the Federal government. Members of the Pledge Community benefit from participation in activities including in person meetings and webinars that provide networking, updates from the federal government, and opportunities to share and learn best practices from and with peers and potential partners. A wide variety of organizations participate in the Pledge Program, including "Data Holders" and "Non Data Holders," who make pledges ranging from directly providing electronic consumer access to health data, to developing tools that make it useful, to promoting a public shift in awareness of and attitudes about consumer engagement in health.

We challenge (but do not strictly require) Data Holder organizations in the Pledge community to take their existing pledge to the next level by providing a way for patients to view, download and share their health record in a format that is both machine and human readable. (See details of the Pledge terms at www.healthit.gov/pledge.) We hope you will join this community to get personal health information out of proprietary silos and into the hands of the consumers and patients who need it to be truly engaged partners in their healthcare.

Join the Initiative to Automate the Blue Button

ONC and the Department of Veterans Affairs have teamed up to launch a new Standards & Interoperability Initiative to automate Blue Button by developing standards and specifications that allow patients to not only download their health information to their personal computer, but also to private and securely automate the sending of that data from their health care providers to a preferred holding place-either a personal health record, email account, or other health-related application. This effort will ensure that consumers have the most current, up-to-date information about their health at their fingertips whenever they need it. We need experts to develop standards and pilot the technology, innovators to push the envelope, and patients and providers to test that it works. Join this initiative or learn more .