Interoperability

Portrait of Micky Tripathi

What Makes TEFCA Different: New Standard Operating Procedure Strengthens Trust

Micky Tripathi | December 10, 2024

The “T” in Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement™ (TEFCA™) is an important part of what drives our work. So too is the public-private engagement we have created over the past seven years. As we launched TEFCA last year we did so with the expectation that we would need to make iterative adjustments over time to help it grow. That’s why we’ve recently released a new standard operating procedure (SOP) to guide how organizations seeking to participate in specific “Exchange Purposes” within TEFCA are vetted (see: Vetting Process SOP).  

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Portrait of Wes Barker

A Decade of Data: Progressing Patient-Centric Care through Health IT

Wes Barker | October 31, 2024

Earlier this year we celebrated the 20th birthday of the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Technology Policy/Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (hereafter ASTP) and reflected on the transformative impact of health IT on patient care delivery in the US. These developments have been instrumental in creating a more connected and patient-focused health care system, supporting our goal of seamless data exchange between health care providers, and enabling real-time access to critical patient health information.

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Portrait of Micky Tripathi

Getting Real about Information Blocking and APIs

Micky Tripathi | October 8, 2024

Our country has made tremendous strides and invested billions of private and public dollars in establishing the digital future of the health care system. We are thus highly concerned about ongoing and recent reports that we have received about potential violations of both the letter and spirit of the various laws and regulations now in place to ensure information-sharing to improve our health care system and enhance the lives of all Americans. In this blog post we describe some of the issues that have been brought to our attention and the steps that we are taking to address them.

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Portrait of Jordan Everson

Raising the Bar on Interoperability – A Decade of Data Show that “Sometimes” Isn’t Good Enough

Jordan Everson | June 17, 2024

A decade ago, as EHRs were rapidly implemented across the country, ONC sought to make sure these newly implemented technologies were interoperable. Since 2014, ONC has tracked progress toward widespread interoperability among hospitals and physicians by measuring their engagement in four domains of health information exchange: electronically finding, sending, receiving, and integrating patient health information. As shown in the figure below, US hospitals experienced widespread progress toward interoperability with 70% of hospitals reporting that they ‘sometimes’ or ‘often’ engaged in all four domains in 2023,

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Portrait of Steven Posnack

USCDI+ Milestone! ONC and HRSA Modernization Initiative Goes Live

Steven Posnack | June 13, 2024

ONC’s USCDI+ program recently reached a milestone as part of a joint initiative started in August 2022 with the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA). HRSA and HRSA Health Center Program grantees launched one of the first real-world implementations using the Health Level 7 International (HL7®) Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR®) Bulk Data Access standard as part of a federal program.

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