ONC to survey public on attitudes about health information exchange

Providing further evidence that the HHS Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) is increasingly focused not only on addressing personal privacy concerns related to the use of health IT and health information exchange but also on balancing privacy with functionality, ONC announced plans to conduct a large-scale survey of consumers on individual attitudes towards health information exchange and controlling disclosure of their personal health information. In a notice published in the Federal Register, ONC explained that “little is known about individuals’ attitudes toward electronic health information exchange and the extent to which they are interested in determining by whom and how their health information is exchanged.” In conducting the survey, which once begun is intended to reach more than 25,000 U.S. households, ONC hopes “to better understand individuals’ attitudes toward electronic health information exchange and its associated privacy and security aspects as well as inform policy and programmatic objectives.”