The next stage

The 90-day period to submit comments on the draft interoperability roadmap came to a close one week ago, and lots of stakeholders had lots to say about it.

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT's (ONC) draft interoperability roadmap drew a wide range of support and criticism as the public comment period came to a close on April 3. 

The American Hospital Association said it supported ONC's goal of creating an interoperable health IT infrastructure but raised concern that EHR system technology does not support seamless data exchange. The group cited the cost and complexity of the interfaces needed to connect systems, which are not sustainable.

The American Medical Association’s recommendations included acknowledgement of the effect of Meaningful Use on interoperability, addressing barriers to interoperability, avoiding a disciplinary approach on providers and prioritizing “cornerstone” issues such as functional standards and clinical data definitions.

The Workgroup for Electronic Data Interchange (WEDI) called on ONC to “better reflect the realities, gaps, challenges and opportunities across the current landscape.” The organization also declared the roadmap’s scope and timing “aggressive.”

WEDI also noted a need to move from government oversight to industry involvement. While ONC has "played a key role in driving the development and adoption of core building blocks and standards for health information technology,” the nation is moving "into a more mature phase of building a health IT infrastructure." WEDI cited the success of Healtheway as one example of how public-private collaboration can drive efforts forward.

It will be interesting to see how the roadmap changes between this draft and the final version. 

Beth Walsh

Clinical Innovation + Technology editor