Karen DeSalvo, the new ONC coordinator, spoke to reporters at the ongoing HIMSS14 on Tuesday and highlighted that they understand people’s concerns and are listening to them.

Some of the issues people are facing are about meeting government regulations such as Meaningful Use Stage 2 requirements, ICD-10 conversions etc. DeSalvo will present a joint keynote with CMS administrator Marilyn Tavenner at 8.30am on Thursday where she is expected to speak at length on the issues currently faced by the industry.

She said during an interview with Bloomberg News that the ONC had received many letters of concern from various organizations about meeting government regulatory requirements. She added that she along with her team was looking to be flexible about the issues.

DeSalvo said that she has some goals to keep the healthcare organizations engaged in their efforts towards meeting Stage 2 requirements. One such goal is to ensure that every provider is using electronic health record technology to capture, use and share health information, she said.

“That requires that there’s some floor that we set, that is raised, whether you’re a rural, small hospital, provider, payer, whatever you are,” she said.

Another policy goal is using Meaningful Use as a driver to advance the market.

“It’s one thing to have an EHR,” she said. “We need to meaningfully use it, and push technology so that it is driving interoperability across the continuum and that it is improving outcomes.”

However, DeSalvo was more excited talking about interoperability.

“The reason I get excited about interoperability is because for it to work, for the doctor to show up in the ER and to know what medicine you’re allergic to, if you’re unconscious and need some help, there’s a lot of back work to see that everything comes together just at the right moment to save your life. That’s pretty exciting to me,” she added.