Moving the goalposts
It may not always seem like it but numerous organizations including the federal government are plugging away at interoperability issues.
Health 7 International's (HL7) Fast Healthcare Interoperable Resource (FHIR) standard for exchanging healthcare information electronically is gaining steam and may pave the path to greater interoperability, said HL7 CEO Charles Jaffe, MD, PhD, speaking at the Medical Informatics World Conference on April 29.
FHIR (pronounced “fire”) has been under development by HL7 for several years, and the draft standard for trial use, which allows health organizations and IT vendors to use it on a trial basis, became available earlier this year.
The standard has achieved rapid adoption for a few reasons: it combines the best features of HL7 v2 and HL7 v3 Clinical Document Architecture and it is easy to implement, as it was developed from modern web technologies and RESTful services and familiar web specifications like XML, JSON, HTTP, Atom and OAuth, according to Jaffe. FHIR also supports leading privacy and security specifications, enables an evolutionary development path and supports mobile health, social media and personal health records.
Stay tuned.
Meanwhile, Bryan Sivak, chief technology officer at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) discussed the government’s history and future of innovation at the Medical Informatics World Conference.
HHS is a multilayered agency with departments that often do not communicate or systematically share data. “There are a lot of very detailed operational complexities within the agency,” Sivak said. Getting the various divisions to work together—even on complementary endeavors—is a challenge, as they all operate independently and Congress designates funding for each department separately.
However, Sivak is leading an initiative called the IDEA Lab to “create a more modern and effective government.” Central to the IDEA Lab is giving staff the freedom to experiment, which he feels propels true innovation, with a focus on improving design within agencies to improve user experience and more effectively communicate ideas, he said. It also includes efforts to liberate federated data.
Sounds like these initiatives and more are starting to move the goalposts.
Beth Walsh
Clinical Innovation + Technology 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.