David Hunt, chief medical officer for the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT, has responded to HIMSS outreach for its new program on the healthcare IT needs in the Latino community.

"We at ONC are excited to work with the HIMSS Latino Initiative to help advance the adoption, implementation and meaningful use of electronic health records in the Hispanic clinical community," Hunt told HIMSS officials.

It could be an important connection, as healthcare IT business leaders like Luis Belen, CEO of VWCGlobal and Medic Success, and Danny Vargas, president of VARCom Solutions head up the initiative's main workgroup and kickstart new programs. The workgroup will meet once a month via teleconference.

To lay out its strategy for the larger membership, HIMSS officials are holding panel discussions on the "State of Latino Health" and "Health IT Adoption in the Hispanic Community and Overcoming Barriers," at the HIMSS annual conference next month in Orlando.

With the Latino population expected to nearly double in the next forty years, getting buy-in from stakeholders in the Hispanic community now is crucial, HIMSS officials indicate. Key players like Hector Barreto, chairman of The Latino Coalition have spoken out already about the need for more bilingual patient health record systems, and improved technology penetration into Hispanic communities.

"We want to ensure that the Latino population receives its fair share of the [HITECH Act] resources that will make it easier for Latino families to better manage their health and medical information," Barreto said in 2010. 

To learn more:
- read about the HIMSS Latino Initiative Workgroup
- here's the HIMSS press release on the initiative
- read about similar efforts to connect with the Latino community

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