Health IT for Pediatric Care and Practice Settings

Health IT can be used to support the safe and effective health care of children. In response to the requirements set forth in section 4001 of the Cures Act, ONC has:

1. Developed ten recommendations for the voluntary certification of health IT for pediatric care that does NOT include a separate certification program for pediatric care and practice settings.
2. Identified relevant certification Program criteria (referred to as the 2015 Edition Cures Update, which is inclusive of both the 2015 Edition Certification Criteria and the 2015 Edition Cures Update criteria).
3. Focused on non-regulatory initiatives that are nimble and responsive to stakeholders, including development of informational resources to support setting-specific implementation that aligns with the ONC Health IT Certification Program.

This content on pediatric health IT compiles relevant documents as part of ONC’s final rulemaking to improve the interoperability of health information, including recommendations for pediatric health IT voluntary certification criteria. 

NEW for 2022: Pediatric Health Information Technology: Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome (NAS) Informational Resource

This Informational Resource supports the implementation of health IT products used by clinicians that provide healthcare for infants with NAS and was developed in accordance with select provisions of the SUPPORT Act in collaboration with CMS.  It focuses on twelve clinical priorities and is guided by:

• Earlier recommendations, sources, and relevant findings from two pediatric health information technology (IT) resources developed in 2020 by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC)
• Stakeholder identified priorities and refined content as applicable to the care of infants with Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome (NAS)

ONC, via an interagency agreement with CMS, developed the NAS IR in response to Sections 1003(aa)(2)(D)(i) 1005(a), and 7062(4) of the SUPPORT Act, to improve care for infants with NAS. This is the third pediatric health information technology information resource and is part of a broader ONC effort to advance interoperable health IT across the care continuum.

As part of this work, a diverse panel of clinical and informatics experts identified five new clinical priorities for providers treating NAS. The NAS IR also repeated the identification of seven other priorities previously called out in the other pediatric information resources mentioned above.

Additional information available in this ONC Buzz Blog post.

See all Informational Resources below.

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