Argonaut Project issues charter

The Argonaut Project has released its newly creater charter which seeks to accelerate nationwide health information sharing based on an internet-based open architecture and accelerate and focus HL7's development of FHIR interoperability standards and profiles.

In his blog, Life as a Healthcare CIO, John Halamka, MD, CIO of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston and member of the Argonaut Project, wrote that "each of the participants has agreed that all specifications and artifacts developed during the course of the project will be made available to the entire community via an Open Content License."

The charter lays out the following three deliverables:

  • FHIR Data Query Profiles. A set of FHIR resources and accompanying profiles that enables query/response of the discrete data elements contained in the Meaningful Use Common Data Set. The work will be completed for inclusion in the May 2015 HL7 FHIR Draft Standard for Trial Use revision 2 ballot.
  • FHIR Document Query Profile. A FHIR resource and profile that enables query/response of IHE X* metadata resources, and specifically, transition of care and patient summary CCDAs. The work will be completed for inclusion in the May 2015 HL7 FHIR Draft Standard for Trial Use revision 2 ballot.
  • Security Implementation Guide. Based on the SMART OAuth 2.0 and OpenID Connect profiles, a final guide will be completed the week of April 1, 2015, and eventually be incorporated in the HL7 balloting process, but for this project will be developed in parallel to accompany the FHIR Data Query and Document Query Profiles and Implementation Guides.

Halamka wrote that the "Argonaut project is time limited and focused on just those three specific deliverables in 2015. It is not a new organization nor is it competitive with any other effort." Participants cover a range of stakeholders.

The group also has been careful to "decouple the Argonaut work from Meaningful Use," Halamka wrote. "Although we believe FHIR should be included in future certification testing, it should not be a regulatory requirement until appropriate pilots, testing and revision are completed."  

These standards will align well with the recently released Federal Healthcare IT Strategic Plan and the upcoming interoperability roadmap, he wrote. "FHIR will not solve every problem and we need to be careful to underpromise, but the notion of a learning healthcare system based on the kind of data liquidity we have in other aspects of our lives (social media, electronic banking, smartphone apps) seems like the right trajectory to me."

Read the entire blog post.

Beth Walsh,

Editor

Editor Beth earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism and master’s in health communication. She has worked in hospital, academic and publishing settings over the past 20 years. Beth joined TriMed in 2005, as editor of CMIO and Clinical Innovation + Technology. When not covering all things related to health IT, she spends time with her husband and three children.

Around the web

The tirzepatide shortage that first began in 2022 has been resolved. Drug companies distributing compounded versions of the popular drug now have two to three more months to distribute their remaining supply.

The 24 members of the House Task Force on AI—12 reps from each party—have posted a 253-page report detailing their bipartisan vision for encouraging innovation while minimizing risks. 

Merck sent Hansoh Pharma, a Chinese biopharmaceutical company, an upfront payment of $112 million to license a new investigational GLP-1 receptor agonist. There could be many more payments to come if certain milestones are met.