Source: GovCIO
The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC)‘s latest draft of its standards for health interoperability, United States Core Data for Interoperability (USCDI), added two new data classes and 13 new data elements. The fifth version is open for comment until April 15 and will be finalized in July. Just like previous versions, the current iteration of USCDI aims to help health organizations better standardize data to make it not only interoperable across health care systems and electronic health records (EHRs), but also equitable. Adopting USCDI standards can enhance patient care, increase equity and decrease disparities. National Coordinator for Health IT Dr. Micky Tripathi said he sees the public, through this public comment period, playing an important role to informing future versions and helping to achieve fair representation in data standardization across the entire health care ecosystem. “We are continuing to build the digital foundation of our health care system with the release of the draft USCDI v5. The new data elements are another step toward improving patient care and patient access, promoting equity, reducing disparities, supporting underserved communities and enabling public health exchange,” said Tripathi.