February 2024 Posts

Unveiling Inferno Testing Support for Payer Data Exchange API Standards

Ashley Hain | February 22, 2024

ONC has hit a new milestone in advancing interoperability across the care continuum. A new series of voluntary tests to support standards-based application programming interfaces (APIs) leveraging Health Level Seven® (HL7®) implementation specifications developed via the Da Vinci project and the CARIN Alliance are now available in the ONC-developed Inferno testing tool. The tests are open source, with the source code freely available for use by the public on GitHub.

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Digital Health Company Experiences Using EHR APIs

Wes Barker | February 15, 2024

New research from a survey of digital health companies shows that most companies (73%) use standards-based application programming interfaces (APIs) when integrating with electronic health records (EHRs) (Figure 1). In 2020, ONC finalized its Cures Act Final Rule, which codified the use of the Health Level 7® (HL7®) Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources® (FHIR®) standard for “certified APIs” that can enable secure, programmatic access to a patient’s electronic health information (EHI).

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Innovation in Population Data Analytics Driven by the 21st Century Cures Act’s API Standards Requirements

Adam Wong | February 8, 2024

The SMART Health IT (SMART) team based in Boston Children’s Hospital Computational Health Informatics Program has been a leader in developing new capabilities leveraging the HL7® FHIR® standard. A 2010 Strategic Health IT Advanced Research Project (SHARP) was SMART’s first ONC funding opportunity that led to the creation of the SMART on FHIR application programming interface (API). This API enables FHIR to work as an app platform. The SMART on FHIR API proceeded to become a standard required for health IT certification as part of ONC’s Cures Act Final Rule.

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Navigating Social Determinants of Health Data Exchange: Insights from ONC’s SDOH Information Exchange Learning Forum

Meley Gebresellassie | February 7, 2024

Last year, ONC wrapped up the SDOH Information Exchange Learning Forum, a series of webinars focused on social determinants of health (SDOH) information exchange. The sessions are part of our ongoing work to engage and empower communities to advance SDOH interoperability consistent with the Biden-Harris Administration’s actions to improve health and well-being by addressing SDOH. The sessions built upon earlier ONC-supported activities including the development of an SDOH Information Exchange Toolkit.

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SAMHSA and ONC Launch the Behavioral Health Information Technology Initiative

Micky Tripathi | February 5, 2024

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) and the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) will work together to invest more than $20 million of SAMHSA funds over the next three years in an initiative to advance health information technology (IT) in behavioral health care and practice settings. The project supports the HHS Roadmap for Behavioral Health Integration and is consistent with the President’s call to action to prevent,

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