The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has launched a new blog where consumers, healthcare providers, policy makers, and others to share ideas and concerns regarding health IT.

The new Health IT Buzz blog "will allow readers to learn more about health IT," as well as let them to share comments on various topics, said Dr. David Blumenthal, national coordinator for health IT, in an HHS release.

The new blog includes:

• Discussions of ways to advance interoperability standards, which will ensure accurate and widespread exchange of health information;
• Evaluations of new options for the certification of electronic health records;
• Exploration of health IT-related regulatory and guidance initiatives to protect the privacy and security of health information;
• An assessment of critical privacy and security issues.