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What current federal initiatives are focused on health IT for children?

Over the last few years the Federal Government has funded several child health IT programs through HRSA and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). In addition, The National Governors Association's (NGA) e-Health Alliance recently recommended that "Governors should ensure that in the planning and collaboration around health information exchange that every child must have a patient-centered electronic health record that is transferable to other providers and accessible to individuals by 2014."*

The following are resources on recent Federal efforts relating to health IT for children:

• The reauthorized Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) contains health IT provisions (PDF - 412 KB) - AHRQ
• Child Health Care Quality Toolbox: Fact Sheet
• Evaluation of AHRQ's Children's Health Activities (PDF - 1.5 MB). Pages 16-24 discuss AHRQ's activities using Health IT in quality and patient safety.
• Improving Child Health Care Through Federal Policy: An Emerging Opportunity (PDF - 476 KB).  Page 3 discusses the use of information technology to aid CHIP and improve patient care.  
• HRSA's integration of telemedicine for children with disabilities (PDF - 232 KB)

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (PDF - 1.1 MB) also provides for significant investments in health information technology. See pages 117 and 121 for references to children's health information technology in particular.

* "Health Information Communication and Data Exchange Taskforce Recommendations," 2008 National Governors Association for Best Practices.