How can you get involved?

The most common health IT standards focus on allowing for the electronic recording and exchange of data. The most common standards in healthcare and in use by government programs include:

• C-CDA for sending transitions of care and providing electronic information to patients;
• HIPAA 5010 X12 transaction standards, such as 270, 271, 834, 835, and 837 for administrative transactions;
• ICD-10 for coding diagnosis on claims;
• RxNorm for coding medications and medication allergies; and
• SCRIPT for sending electronic prescriptions.

ONC’s 2015 Edition Certification Criteria includes a number of standards that health IT developers must build into their products if they are pursuing certification (see Standards Hub). ONC has also provided the Interoperability Standards Advisory (ISA) that provides a list of interoperability standards and implementation standards for industry use to fulfill specific clinical health IT interoperability needs. In addition, the National Library of Medicine is a steward for vocabulary standards and maintains a Hub for vocabulary standards that provides users with an explanation of each vocabulary standard and easy access to the vocabulary standards used to support interoperability.

While there are roughly 40 SDOs in the healthcare space, below is a list of the most common SDOs that provide health IT standards.

• HL7 – Health Level 7 International
• ASC X12 – Accredited Standards Committee X12
• NCPDP – National Council for Prescription Drug Programs
• IHE – Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise
• ISO – International Organization for Standardization
• DICOM – Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine
• Regenstrief Institute (LOINC Codes)
• CMS (ICD-10)
• International Health Terminology Standards Development Organization (IHTSDO)
• CDISC – Clinical Data Interchange Standards Consortium