The Federal Health IT Strategic Plan: 2011-2015 ("the Plan") is developed under the leadership of the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) and in close collaboration with other federal partners. The Plan reflects a strategy for coordinating with the public and private sector to realize Congress’ and the Administration's health information technology (health IT) agenda: improving the quality, efficiency, safety and patient-centeredness of health care.

The Plan reflects federal government priorities to help eligible providers become meaningful users of health IT; support implementation of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA); protect individuals’ privacy; empower consumers with access to their health information, and support enhanced learning and innovation. The Plan, which was last published in 2008, has been updated to take into account the rapidly changing landscape of health IT and health IT policy. Since 2008, two major pieces of legislation have established an ambitious agenda and committed significant resources to health IT– the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act, passed as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, and the PPACA. The HITECH Act addresses security and privacy risks as health IT becomes a more ubiquitous part of health care, and PPACA expands both public health care and private health insurance initiatives.

In order to update the Plan, ONC leveraged the strategic framework recommended by the Strategic Plan Workgroup of the Health IT Policy Committee and obtained input by conducting interviews with representatives from federal agencies/offices and the private sector. ONC also engaged its federal partners, the private sector, and members of the public to provide feedback on multiple versions of the Plan.

Our health IT strategy greatly benefited from the insight and guidance from our federal advisory committees and from the valuable feedback we received through public comments.

We will continue to engage our public and private sector collaborators to keep the Plan up to date and relevant as it will serve as an important tool in guiding federal efforts and investments in health IT over the next five years.

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