Audio from FACA meetings

Many of you know that I have been following closely the meetings of the HIT Policy and Standards Committees and their various workgroups. I have struggled at times to keep up with the monstrous amount of work produced by these bodies. I have emailed and spoken with staff from the ONC and the Altarum Institute (which contracts to provide the webcast for the meetings) to try to prompt the timely posting of audio files and meeting summaries. This would obviate the desire to post very rough draft and inaccurate transcripts. The ONC this week released the following press release:

HIT Policy and Standards Committee Workgroups' Deliberations to be Made Publicly Available

In the interest of transparency, starting in January 2010, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC) is making available to the public the HIT Policy Committee and the HIT Standards Committee workgroups’ deliberations.

All workgroup meetings will be available via webcast; for instructions on how to listen via telephone or Web visit http://healthit.hhs.gov. (Note that the majority of the workgroups’ meetings will be available both via phone or web, except when indicated otherwise.)

Please check the ONC website for additional information as it becomes available since any last minute additions or modifications to previously announced workgroup meetings cannot always be published in the Federal Register to provide timely notice.

In addition, audio files (.mp3) of FACA Committee meetings and the workgroup meetings will be available on the ONC website within 24 to 48 hours following the conclusion of each meeting. A draft transcript of the meetings will be available within 5 to 8 business days. All transcripts will be marked and considered “draft” until they are reviewed and approved by the committee or workgroup members.

Contact Person: Judy Sparrow, Office of the National Coordinator, HHS, 330 C Street, SW, Washington, DC 20201, 202-205-4528, Fax: 202-690-6079, email: judy.sparrow@hhs.gov Please call the contact person or visit the ONC website for up-to-date information on these meetings.

I am very pleased at these efforts at transparency. Provided the files are available I will try to create pages that make it easy to download or stream the audio of the meetings, and post meeting summaries and draft transcripts as they are available. I have updated the recent post on the Privacy and Security Workgroup meeting to include the newly released audio. Now all we need is an app that will make the mp3 files available on the iPhone...