New Tools Educate Patients on HIE Informed Consent

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology has issued new online resources for educating patients on making an informed consent decision on whether to share their medical information via a health information exchange.

ONC unveiled the tools during Health IT Week in Washington. The tools include information for providers on state and federal laws and policies related to information exchange, as well as the use of tablet computers to present information to patients to help them make meaningful consent decisions about data exchange. Information is available to providers on using information technologies to electronically capture and maintain patient consent decisions, and to protect sensitive health information.

Several regional extension centers also are offering services to educate providers about patient consent issues. For example, the Purdue Regional Extension Center offers security awareness training and assessments, and the Wisconsin Health Information Technology Extension Center has electronic health record risk assessment toolkits for hospitals and clinics.

More information is available here.