Authors

Stephanie Garcia

Portrait of Stephanie Garcia

Stephanie Garcia's Latest Blog Posts

Advancing Genomic Data-Sharing for Research and Patient Care: Sync for Genes Project Delivers Final Report and Toolkit

Stephanie Garcia | August 21, 2023

Genomic variations can affect a patient’s risk for cancer, response to medications, and numerous other vital health outcomes. In fact, nine of the ten leading causes of death in the U.S. are influenced by genomic factors. The need for systems that help clinicians integrate genomics into care decisions has grown in importance.  
Recognizing this need, in 2017 ONC launched Sync for Genes, a project that sought to advance standards and tools to effectively integrate genomic information into clinical workflows.

Read Full Post.

Accelerating Patient-Centered Outcomes Research through Synthetic Health Data Generation

Stephanie Garcia | September 19, 2022

Real world health data are critical for Patient-Centered Outcomes Research (PCOR). However, it’s often difficult, expensive, and time consuming for researchers to access real-world clinical health data because of privacy concerns, security restrictions, and usage issues. Although PCOR researchers, health information technology developers, and informaticists often depend on anonymized or de-identified clinical health data for testing theories, data models, algorithms, and prototype innovations, re-identification of anonymized data remains a possible security risk. Synthetic health data can provide a no-risk data source to complement research and support testing needs until real clinical health data are available.

Read Full Post.

Sharing Genomic Data for Patient Care – Sync for Genes Phase 4 Wraps Up

Stephanie Garcia | June 21, 2022

The Sync for Genes program, launched by ONC in 2017 in partnership with the National Institutes of Health’s All of Us Research Program, aims to enable the sharing of standardized genomic information among laboratories, providers, patients, and researchers by advancing the development and use of industry-supported standards, such as the Health Level Seven International® (HL7®) Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources® (FHIR®) standard.

Read Full Post.

APIs for Research: Perspectives from App Developers and Data Integrators

Stephanie Garcia | June 13, 2022

In ONC’s “App Developer and Data Integrator Perspectives” report [PDF – 511 KB] (Perspectives Report) – the third in the “Accelerating APIs” report series – we assess the current landscape of API-based health information exchange in a rapidly evolving electronic health data ecosystem. Perspectives of app developers and data integrators are presented to understand the emerging landscape of technology companies and their role in effective data aggregation, integration, and exchange.

Read Full Post.