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Learn more about HHS’s Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC)
Health IT Certification DYK: There’s a Conformance Review Process for Certified Health IT
Pablo Ardaya | February 8, 2022
The use of certified health IT in clinical settings is complicated. We know that certification testing in the lab is different from using certified health IT in the real world, somewhat akin to the difference between “efficacy” and “effectiveness” in drug development. This is why the ONC Health IT Certification Program (Certification Program) compels participating developers to ensure that their certified health IT conforms to the full range of requirements during and after lab-based testing. When suspected issues arise with certified health IT – sometimes called “non-conformities” – the Certification Program’s conformance review process helps provide a path to resolve them.
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21st Century Cures Act, Health IT, Health IT Certification, Health IT Policy, Standards Shining a Light on FHIR Implementation: Progress Toward Publishing FHIR Endpoints
Wes Barker | February 1, 2022
Using APIs “without Special Effort”
The ONC’s Cures Act Final Rule (Cures Rule) supports patients’ and providers’ access to electronic health information (EHI) through Health Level Seven (HL7®) Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR®) application programming interfaces (APIs). FHIR is ready for prime-time and the Cures Rule requires certain developers of certified health IT to provide a certified, FHIR API to their customer base by December 31, 2022.
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Health IT Certification, Standards Calling all Beta Testers: New Opportunity to help ONC Update the Inferno Test Tool
John Bender | January 27, 2022
Beginning March 2022, Inferno, ONC’s test tool for the “standardized API for patient and population services” certification criterion, will support beta testing for the Health Level Seven (HL7®) Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR®) US Core Implementation Guide (IG) 4.0.0. This new version is expected to include several enhancements from version 3.1.1 and we’re looking for early feedback from health IT developers who are interested in using the new version in the future as part of Inferno testing.
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21st Century Cures Act, Health Information Exchange, Interoperability, TEFCA 3…2…1…TEFCA is Go for Launch
Micky Tripathi | January 18, 2022
The Trusted Exchange Framework and Common AgreementSM is now available. Within the health information technology (health IT) world, few things have been as elusive as a governance framework for nationwide health information exchange. When ONC was formed in 2004, the concept of a nationwide health information network—where your information could be located across the country in a click—was a big picture vision that drove the federal government’s early health IT infrastructure, standards, policy actions, and investments.
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Health Equity, Health IT Certification, Interoperability 2022 ISA Reference Edition Now Available
Andrew Hayden | January 10, 2022
Today we are pleased to ring in the new year with the release of the 8th annual update of the Interoperability Standards Advisory (ISA) Reference Edition, ONC’s catalog of curated standards and implementation specifications for health information interoperability that reflects extensive feedback from industry and federal agencies. Many of the updates can be found on our Recent ISA Updates page.
Noteworthy Updates to the ISA for 2022
COVID-19. We’ve added Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Immunization Information System (IIS) code set standards and Health Level Seven (HL7®) IIS implementation guidance to the COVID-19 Novel Coronavirus Pandemic interoperability need.
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