I remember when visiting a city required paper maps and often actual guidebooks. Today, I tap on a map app on my phone, enter my destination, and review options for getting from point A to point B. In recent years, these applications have expanded to integrate ride-sharing, bike-sharing, and public transit information. Map apps provide two key real-time data points to help me compare the different options: the time it will take to get to my destination and the cost.

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Artificial intelligence (AI) – the ability of computers to learn human-like functions or tasks – has shown great promise. What was previously considered the sole domain of human cognition is already being leveraged successfully across many industries. Now, the technology sector is witnessing what appears to be important new advances in AI that are bringing a new wave of interest for how it might shape the future of health and healthcare.

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The 21st Century Cures Act (Cures Act), signed into law in December 2016, calls on the Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) to work with federal partners, including the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), and the healthcare and health information technology (health IT) industries to provide interoperability for all.

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Today, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) is announcing that the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) has successfully demonstrated that its testing method, as part of the Immunization Integration Program (HIMSS-IIP), can serve as an alternative to the current National Coordinator-approved method for testing transmissions to immunization registries. 

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In 2014, man created FHIR.
In other words, that is when the Health Level 7 (HL7®) Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR®) standard was released as a first draft standard for trial use (“FHIR DSTU1”) for implementation in health information technology (health IT) software. FHIR is a standardized way to exchange health information that’s similar to the way we experience using the Internet. The FHIR standard’s security page notes, however, that FHIR “is not a security protocol,

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