A new blog post authored by James Merlino, MD, executive vice president and chief innovation officer at The Joint Commission, talks about Responsible Use of Health Data™ (RUHD) Certification. This certification sets up guard rails and provides guidance for healthcare organizations to safely use properly de-identified patient data for purposes beyond clinical care, known as secondary use.
Reflecting the surge in the secondary use of data, nearly 85% of U.S. hospitals have the capability to export their patient data for reporting and analysis. These data can be used internally for research, clinical and operations improvement, and the creation of registries. The data also can be exported externally to third parties for the development of new therapies, treatments and technologies. The ever-increasing use of artificial intelligence and machine learning has expanded the potential uses of data while creating new complexities governing data usage.
While HIPAA provides guidance for de-identifying data, there is no governance overseeing how healthcare data is gathered and transferred to a third party. Due to this void, healthcare organizations are struggling to validate their data management practices and seeking guidance on how to protect patient privacy and their organization against abuses.
During June, The Joint Commission has the following on demand free webinar opportunity available. The registration page for the webinar includes learning objectives and Continuing Education (CE) credit information.
Introduction to Joint Commission’s New Telehealth Accreditation Program Requirements – This on demand webinar provides an overview of the new Telehealth Accreditation (TEL) program available July 1, 2024, for healthcare organizations that exclusively provide care, treatment, and services via telehealth and for healthcare organizations that provide services via telehealth to another organization’s patients. The TEL program replaces the telehealth and technology-based accreditation products in Ambulatory Health Care and Behavioral Health Care and Human Services programs for organizations that meet the eligibility criteria (current organizations within those programs have received information about the transition process to the TEL program). This webinar is approved for 1 CE credit until July 31.