In 2018, the United States was at a turning point with respect to the adoption and implementation of the Health Level Seven (HL7®) Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR®) standard in health information technology (health IT). At that time, our analysis, outlined in a previous blog post predicted that the U.S. could soon see widespread adoption of certified application programming interface (API) technology enabled with FHIR. The results are in, and the findings are encouraging.

On the heels of the release of United States Core Data for Interoperability USCDI Version 2 (USCDI v2), ONC has also opened a single, synchronized feedback period for the Interoperability Standards Advisory(ISA), the Standards Version Advancement Process (SVAP), and the draft United States Core Data for Interoperability Version 3 (USCDI v3). Taken together, ISA, SVAP, and draft USCDI v3 enable ONC to engage with the health care community to advance health IT standards that support high priority target areas such as the COVID-19 public health emergency, equity and support for underserved communities, and the interoperability standards priorities “target areas” referenced by the 21st Century Cures Act. Some of these include quality of patient care, clinical research, privacy and security, patient safety, usability, and patient access to electronic health information.

It’s finally time for the 2021 ONC Tech Forum! This year’s Tech Forum will be held virtually on two consecutive Fridays: September 10 and 17, 2021.* Come join us to hear about industry perspectives on the progress made in health IT over the past year, and how we can continue to advance health technology to improve patient care, health equity, data exchange, and interoperability.  Presenters from across the nation will discuss the ways in which the use of health IT supports national needs on topics such as social determinants of health (SDOH), accelerating public health data exchange, HL7® Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR®)-based API adoption, updates to the United States Core Data for Interoperability (USCDI) data standards, and so much more.

ONC is excited to share findings from newly published research that sheds light on the impact adoption of 2015 Edition certified health information technology (health IT) has had on hospitals’ rates of interoperability. In a recently published Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association article called Impact of the 2015 Health Information Technology Certification Edition on Interoperability among Hospitals, we examined how variation in the adoption of 2015 Edition certified health IT impacted key measures of interoperable exchange. Our findings — described in detail in the article and summarized below — show that the availability of data exchange capabilities in EHR systems significantly contributes to greater interoperability in addition to other factors such as user and business motivation.

The goal of Electronic Health Record Reporting Program is to bolster market competitiveness by making publicly available comparative information on the capabilities and uses of certified EHR systems. ONC has taken a dual-track approach to implement the EHR Reporting Program, and today we are excited to unveil the draft output of the second track.