Connected Health Initiative – Our Health IT Friend on Capitol Hill

The Connected Health Initiative (CHI) is a non-profit organization that advocates on behalf of all health IT vendors. They are a trusted resource and voice for our industry so that policymakers at federal, state, and local levels can be better informed about emerging digital health technology. Vendors can help by contributing clinical efficacy studies to CHI’s new Digital Health Evidence Resource Database to bolster their advocacy efforts.

Policymaking is a black box

For most of us, the mechanism by which new laws are drafted, revised, and enacted on Capitol Hill is a black box…one that most do not wish to open. For a heavily regulated industry like healthcare, however, new regulations and guidelines have a profound impact, so it is in our best interests to pay attention to the latest policies.

Lately, the policymakers in Washington have increasingly turned their attention to matters that impact Health IT vendors – specifically digital health and app vendors. Where do these policymakers go to find out more information about this industry? Who is advocating on behalf of the tens of thousands of digital health vendors? To be honest, I didn’t even know to ask this question until I became aware of the Connected Health Initiative (CHI).

Healthcare IT Today recently sat down with Brian Scarpelli, Executive Director at CHI to learn more about their important work.

What is CHI?

CHI is a non-profit organization based in Washington DC that is working to “clarify outdate health regulations, incentivize the use of connected health technologies, and ensure an environment in which patients and consumers can see improvement in their health.” To achieve this goal, CHI educates key decision-makers at the federal and state levels about the effectiveness, quality, and potential of connected health and wellness technology.

“In a nutshell, our organization identifies policy goals that are aligned across vendors, developers, physicians, clinicians, providers, insurers, patient groups, and more,” stated Scarpelli. “We use information to drive towards those policy goals at the congressional level, the federal agency level and, increasingly, at the state level.”

What regulations does CHI seek to influence?

According to Scarpelli, the types of regulations and policies that CHI seeks to influence include (but are not limited to):

  • Reimbursement
  • Patient privacy & data security
  • The role of the Food and Drug Administration relative to emerging technologies
  • The flow of health data
  • Interoperability and information blocking
  • Value-based care
  • Artificial intelligence

“Many healthcare regulations are over 25 years old,” said Scarpelli. “They were born at a time when digital health wasn’t nearly as advanced as it is now. A lot of the checks and balances in those older regulations are meant to deter overuse and fraud, but those may now be unnecessary barriers with little public benefit that are holding back innovation and technology deployments. We try to find ways to modify the law to get these out of the way, while still enabling the responsible use of the technology.”

The Digital Health Evidence Resource Database

To be effective, CHI needs the help from Health IT vendors. They have recently created a database that they are using to consolidate evidence of the efficacy of new digital health technologies. CHI hopes to fill their “Digital Health Evidence Resource Database” with thousands of quality clinical evidence that can inform the public debate on new regulations.

“This is an important effort for us,” shared Scarpelli. “There is no go-to resource to understand the efficacy of new and emerging digital health tools. These tools are new so there isn’t 20 years worth of peer reviewed clinical trials.”

Any company can contribute to the Database. All submissions are vetted by the CHI team. They are currently looking for evidence around the efficacy of remote patient monitoring tools.

Watch the full interview with Brian Scarpelli and learn:

  • How CHI helped to create a standalone reimbursement for a predictive algorithm
  • Who is involved in CHI already
  • What other useful tools and resources CHI has created for the Health IT industry

I would highly encourage Healthcare IT Today readers, listeners, viewers, and followers to check out CHI and The App Association. Both organizations are advocating on behalf of all of us in the health IT ecosystem. They can be our voice on Capitol Hill.

If interested in joining CHI, please reach out to Karen Groppe at kgroppe@actonline.org.

Learn more about the Connected Health Initiative at: https://connectedhi.com/

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About the author

Colin Hung

Colin Hung is the co-founder of the #hcldr (healthcare leadership) tweetchat one of the most popular and active healthcare social media communities on Twitter. Colin speaks, tweets and blogs regularly about healthcare, technology, marketing and leadership. He is currently an independent marketing consultant working with leading healthIT companies. Colin is a member of #TheWalkingGallery. His Twitter handle is: @Colin_Hung.

   

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