HIE Rundown – 7-20-18

Health Information Exchange (HIE) is happening every minute of every day. Your personal health information is moving and being viewed to improve the quality of your healthcare and lower the costs. The job will not be complete until all health records are digital and interoperable. Here’s what’s happening to make that reality.

Listen

Tune in to CTO Talk where technology expert Matt Ferrari discusses the issues, challenges, and opportunities transforming healthcare technology today, all from the CTO point of view. Matt’s guest is Adam Klass, CTO of Vigilanz. Hear their discussion on advancing interoperability for next-generation healthcare delivery. TriCity Medical example converting health data in EHR to intelligence in an interoperability platform.

News and Noted

Join Hospital IQR-Promoting Interoperability Program Alignment Outreach and Education Webinar
This Outreach and Education webinar for participants in the Hospital IQR Program and the Promoting Interoperability Program is scheduled for Tuesday, July 24, 2018. The webinar, titled CY 2018 eCQM Self-Directed Tools and Resources for the Hospital IQR and Promoting Interoperability Programs, will be presented by Artrina Sturges, EdD, Alignment of eCQMs Lead, Hospital Inpatient Value, Incentives, and Quality Reporting Outreach and Education Support Contractor, and Veronica Dunlap, BSN, RN, CCM, Project Manager II, Hospital Inpatient VIQR Outreach and Education SC. Register for this event.

Bridge Patient Portal Receives 2015 Edition ONC Health IT Certification
Bridge Patient Portal (@Bridge_PP), an enterprise patient portal and patient engagement solution for healthcare provider groups, has achieved 2015 Edition ONC Health IT Certification. Newly released Bridge Patient Portal v2.0 has been certified by SLI, an ONC-ACB in accordance with the certification criteria adopted by the Secretary of HHS. The portal helps increase patient engagement while helping provider groups meet requirements for MIPS, MACRA, and Stage 3 Meaningful Use.

Secure Exchange Solutions Selects Linguamatics NLP to Streamline Inefficiencies between Healthcare Payers and Providers
Linguamatics (@Linguamatics), a natural language processing (NLP) text analytics provider, and Secure Exchange Solutions (SES) (@Secure_Exchange), a market leader in enabling the secure exchange of health information, announced the selection of Linguamatics Health as the NLP platform for SES SPOT, a solution that, when combined with SES Fetch, streamlines clinical information exchange and automates the review process.

CMS Launches Data Element Library Supporting Interoperability
CMS (@CMSGov) announced the agency’s first Data Element Library (DEL). The DEL is a new CMS database that supports the exchange of electronic health information. Using this free, centralized resource, the public for the first time can view the specific types of data that CMS requires post-acute care facilities (such as nursing homes and rehabilitation hospitals) to collect as part of the health assessment of their patients. These assessments include questions and response options (data elements) about patients, including demographics, medical problems and other types of health evaluations.

News from the ONC
Now Available: 2018 Interoperability Standards Advisory (ISA) Reference Edition – The Interoperability Standards Advisory (ISA), an interactive catalog of standards and implementation specifications supporting interoperability in healthcare, has been updated following the public review and comment period that ended on November 20, 2017. The 2018 ISA Reference Edition incorporates many of the comments received, and is intended to provide a “snapshot in time” view of the ISA for the new year. Additional changes and functionality improvements are planned for 2018, so be sure to visit the ISA throughout the year.

Save The Date: 2nd ONC Interoperability Forum – From August 6-8, ONC will host the 2nd Interoperability Forum in Washington, DC. We expect stakeholders from industry and government will:

  • Learn about recent efforts to advance interoperability nationwide; and
  • Identify concrete actions that can be taken to respond to today’s interoperability challenges

The Forum will feature a mix of keynote speakers, demos, and opportunities to share and learn best practices.

Date & Time: Monday August 6 (afternoon) – Wednesday August 8, 2018
Location: Mayflower Hotel, 1127 Connecticut Ave NW, Washington, DC 20036

Leading Edge Acceleration Projects (LEAP) Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO)
The 21st Century Cures Act (Cures) directs ONC to improve the interoperability of health information, facilitate information exchange, address barriers to interoperability, and reduce clinician burden relative to EHRs. This funding opportunity will address well-documented and fast emerging challenges that inhibit the development, use, and/or advancement of well-designed, interoperable health IT. It is expected to further a new generation of health IT development and inform the innovative implementation and refinement of standards, methods, and techniques for overcoming major barriers and challenges as they are identified.

Spotlighting Interoperability Proving Ground Programs
The Interoperability Proving Ground (IPG) Spotlight project of the week is: EMS Connectivity.  Through their platform, Kno2 seeks to drive interoperability between the hospital and EMS agencies throughout the patient’s transport and hospital stay – impacting the quality of care, patient safety and outcomes reporting.

Share your interoperability project by submitting a new project at the IPG or update the status of a project that had been posted within the last 90 days. Once a project is submitted or updated, it will be added to the queue to be randomly selected as a featured project. Learn more about the IPG Spotlight.

News from the Sequoia Project
The Sequoia Project (@SequoiaProject) was chartered to advance the implementation of secure, interoperable nationwide health information exchange. The ONC transitioned management of its eHealth Exchange to The Sequoia Project for maintenance. Since 2012, the Exchange has grown to become the largest health information exchange network in the country.

News from the CommonWell
CommonWell Health Alliance (@CommonWell) is devoted to the simple vision that health data should be available to individuals and providers regardless of where care occurs. Additionally, provider access to this data must be built-in health IT at a reasonable cost for use by a broad range of health care providers and the people they serve.

Blog series on FHIR

News from the Strategic Health Information Exchange Collaborative
SHIEC (@SHIEClive) is the National Trade Association for Health Information Exchange Organizations. It is routine for important data about patients’ ongoing care to reside in multiple unconnected organizations. SHIEC member HIEs use information technology and trusted relationships in their service areas to enable secure, authorized exchange of patient information among disparate providers. By providing enhanced access to all available and relevant patient data SHIEC HIE members aim to improve the quality, coordination, and cost-effectiveness of health care provided in their communities. Read their news feed.

  • SHIEC & Diameter Health Form New Technlogoy Best Practices Standardization Alliance
  • Alabama One Health Record Joins The Strategic Health Information Exchange Collaborative
  • SHIEC’s Strategic Business & Technology Partner Grows 640% in One Year

ONC Interoperability Pledge
Companies that provide 90 percent of electronic health records used by hospitals nationwide as well as the top five largest health care systems in the country have agreed to implement three core commitments: Consumer Access, No Blocking/Ensuring Transparency, and Standards. The ONC (@ONC_HealthIT) wants vendors to sign a pledge. Is your vendor pledging? Find out who is on the list.

eHealth Initiative Resource Center
Interoperability Files – Check out the new white paper resource in the eHealth Initiative’s (@eHealthDC) Resource Center: Patient Matching Considerations for Interoperability