The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) started off the new year by releasing several new specifications supporting health information interoperability.
- On January 3, 2022 ONC released the Version 3 Draft of the US Core Data for Interoperability (USCDI) which defines a core set of data for common interoperability transactions in healthcare. It defines classes of data as well as specific data elements within those classes and represents the data that can be expected to be shared at minimum between data partners. While public health is included, ONC has recently recognized that public health use cases (and therefore their data needs) differ from clinical care use cases. In 2022, ONC will work with the healthcare community to define “USCDI+ for Public Health” to better meet this needs, so stay tuned!
- On January 7, 2022 ONC released the Project US@ FINAL Technical Specification. This document offers a consensus-driven approach to standardizing address information primarily to better support more accurate patient matching. This work emerged from a technical workgroup that spanned all sectors of the healthcare ecosystem. From a public health standpoint initiatives like this can only improve the quality of patient demographic data and the reliability of the processes and activities that use this data.
- On January 10, 2022 ONC released the 2022 Interoperability Standards Advisory (ISA) Reference Edition. These baseline standards are provided to promote interoperability across healthcare. There are several noteworthy public health related changes this year related to COVID-19 as well as electronic laboratory reporting and Newborn Screening Results and Birth Defect Reporting to Public Health Agencies.
- On January 18, 2022 ONC released version 1 of the Trusted Exchange Framework, Common Agreement and the QHIN (Qualified Health Information Network) Technical Framework (QTF) which had been released in several draft versions over the past several years. See our in-depth post on this new version and its potential impact on public health.
So, there is lots to review and lots to digest. We’ll continue to provide guidance to public health as these new artifacts emerge and develop.