The Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) recently released the 2017 Interoperability Standards Advisory (ISA). The ISA catalogs key information on standards and implementation for sharing clinical data, such as medication lists, immunization records, and test results.
“The ISA is a key step toward achieving the goals we have outlined with our public and private sector partners in the Shared Nationwide Interoperability Roadmap, as well as the Interoperability Pledge announced earlier this year,” said Vindell Washington, National Coordinator for Health IT. “We incorporated detailed stakeholder feedback to provide a consolidated, public list of standards and specifications that can be put to use to address clinical, public health, and research needs for sharing electronic health information.”
The Roadmap brings together collaborative efforts of public and private sector efforts to provide seamless, secure access and use of health information from a variety of sources.
The pledge, taken by companies that provide 90 percent of electronic health records (EHRs) used by hospitals and the five largest health care systems, outlines three core commitments:
- Help consumers easily and securely access electronic health information.
- Help providers share health information with other providers and patients.
- Implement Federally recognized national standards, politicizes, guidelines, and practices for EHR sharing.
The 2017 ISA is now an online platform–a transition from the 2016 static document–in the hopes that patients can more fully engage with and shape the ISA. This also allows for more efficient, real-time updates and comments, ensuring the ISA keeps pace with new health IT developments and grows over time.
This work supports efforts for common, Federally recognized standards for health IT systems and the administration’s efforts to empower patients, their families, and caregivers to learn and share key health data and use it for decision-making, resulting in better individual patient outcomes.
