The Department of Health and Human Services plans to develop and maintain a continuous scan of health information technology innovations to help HHS agencies understand and be aware of potential breakthroughs in healthcare delivery.

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT will collect information about technology trends along with data on subject-matter experts and health IT innovators and developers, according to a Dec.30 announcement on Federal Business Opportunities website. HHS will use a vendor to support effort.

ONC will update the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality on the development of the most promising health IT innovations that may support the achievement of meaningful use and the adoption of health IT, as well as other program efforts that will be affected by technological advances.

This exchange will offer the systematic identification of health IT innovations that tackle critical problems in areas of care delivery as well as the early identification of emerging, breakthrough advances that may shape policy and technology initiatives, the announcement said.

With HHS paying billions of dollars to support health IT as part of healthcare reform and for the incentive program for healthcare providers to become meaningful users of electronic health records, it is critical that agencies understand and take full advantage of technological advancement.

The health IT industry is developing a range of innovative technological approaches. Some of these will quickly disappear from the marketplace, others will trigger modest changes, and a few will have revolutionary impact over the next several years, HHS said in the notice.