As part of ongoing efforts to improve the safe use of health information technology (health IT) and electronic health records (EHRs), the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced today the winners of the Easy EHR Issue Reporting Challenge. Winners of this challenge created software tools that could help clinicians report EHR usability and safety issues faster, more efficiently, and in alignment with their regular clinical workflow.

“Helping reduce the burden of health IT continues to be a key area of focus at the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) and we anticipate the winning submissions to the Easy EHR Issue Reporting Challenge will help with those efforts,” said Don Rucker, M.D., national coordinator for health information technology. “Once the winning submissions reach production, we expect to see how reporting safety issues can be less burdensome for healthcare providers.”

The winners include:

• First place - James Madison Advisory Group. James Madison Advisory Group’s unique solution for reporting possible safety events launches through a system tray icon or hotkey on any Windows 8 or higher installation. Use of the tray icon or hotkey keeps the user from exiting the EHR workflow, regardless of the EHR platform. The tool exports in the HHS Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) Common Formats XML and PDF, captures screenshots, and simplifies the report delivery process. The winning submission is awarded $45,000.
• Second place – Pegwin. Pegwin provides a software platform that can create and send a safety or usability report in as few as three clicks. Using contextual menus and design intuitive to the user, the software makes completion of Common Formats reporting as automated as possible. The second place submission is awarded $25,000.
• Third place – Jared Schwartz and team. Jared Schwartz and his team uses a browser plug-in to Google Chrome that can integrate with IT ticketing systems, enabling more consistent capture of safety issues. The user can also provide additional information immediately or save for a more convenient time. The third place submission is awarded $10,000.

“Improving the safety of health IT remains an important priority,” said Andy Gettinger, M.D., ONC chief clinical officer. “We believe that making it easier for end users to report will help in that goal.”

Many EHR users have indicated the need for more efficient and user-friendly mechanisms to facilitate reporting safety concerns quickly and easily, with little or no disruption to their clinical workflow.  The challenge submissions are intended to help EHR users identify, document, and report potential health IT safety issues when they occur. By promoting heath IT safety issue reporting, the industry will be in better position to determine root causes, provide feedback to EHR developers, and produce best practice guidance.

Additional information about the Easy EHR Issue Reporting Challenge is available at https://www.cccinnovationcenter.com/challenges/easy-ehr-issue-reporting-challenge/.