VA sponsoring contest to expand "blue button" program

The Dept. of Veterans Affairs considers its "blue button" program a success. So much so that the department would like to see it made available to all veterans, including those receiving care outside of the VA system, as well as to the public.

The VA announced that it is offering $50,000 to the first team to develop a personal health record using its blue button download tool and arranges to put the technology on the websites of 25,000 physicians across the U.S.

The blue button is an icon on the Dept. of Veterans Affairs' MyHealth.va.gov website that gives patients the real-time ability to download their health information. The tool was launched in August 2010, and nearly 300,000 veterans have used it to download their PHR data. The blue-button concept was developed by the public-private Connecting for Health collaborative, which is sponsored by the Markle Foundation.

The Dept. of Health and Human Services' Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services also has a blue button on its MyMedicare.gov website that allows Medicare beneficiaries to download claims data.

VA Secretary Eric K. Shinseki said the contest is being launched so that the 17 million veterans who receive care from non-VA doctors and hospitals will have the same capability to download their data. By bringing the blue-button concept to private health care organizations, nonveteran patients also would have access to the technology.

"Veterans can now expect that downloading their data will be a routine part of the care they receive from the VA," said White House Chief Technology Officer Aneesh Chopra. "We want veterans across America -- and the general public -- to think of blue-button downloads as something they receive from their family doctors as a routine matter."

A October 2010 survey by the Markle Foundation found that 65% of doctors and 70% of the public agree with the blue-button concept. Experts who support the idea say it's a convenient way for physicians to satisfy meaningful use requirements that patients receive their medical records electronically upon request. Physicians with a blue button on their websites could direct patients to the Internet to get copies of their medical records.

The Blue Button Prize Competition, sponsored by the VA Innovative Initiative, is open to all U.S. organizations and individuals. The winner must be the first to develop a PHR that is compliant with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, is easy for physicians to install, is readily available to all the doctors' patients, and uses blue-button technology that enables patients to download their data in real time. To win, the developer also must arrange to have the PHR installed on the websites of 25,000 physicians.

The contest will run through Oct. 18 unless a winner is declared sooner.