Family Health History

Level 2

Data Element

Submitted By: Al Taylor / ONC
Data Element Information
Use Case Description(s)
Use Case Description	Family Health History is an element of patient health data capturing relevant coded health data of a patient's family. The ONC certification criteria "§170.315(a)(12) Family health history" is already established to capture this data element using SNOMED CT.
Estimate the breadth of applicability of the use case(s) for this data element	Current users of 552 products of health information technology certified to the ONC 2015 or Cures Update to 2015 certification criteria: The health IT permits users to record, change, and access a patient’s family health history according to the September 2015 Release of SNOMED CT®, U.S. Edition.
Link to use case project page	https://www.healthit.gov/test-method/family-health-history
Healthcare Aims	Improving patient experience of care (quality and/or satisfaction) Improving the health of populations
Maturity of Use and Technical Specifications for Data Element
Applicable Standard(s)	SNOMED CT is the baseline standard to capture this data element, although health IT developers are allowed to use other standards, such as LOINC, to capture elements of family health history
Additional Specifications	N/A
Current Use	This data element has been used at scale between multiple different production environments to support the majority of anticipated stakeholders
Supporting Artifacts	Based on certification of 552 out of 921 products certified to any 2015 or 2015 Cures Update criteria are certified to §170.315(a)(12) Family health history.
Extent of exchange	5 or more. This data element has been tested at scale between multiple different production environments to support the majority of anticipated stakeholders.
Supporting Artifacts	https://www.hl7.org/fhir/familymemberhistory.html Family History Section (V3) of CCDA R2.1 (2.16.840.1.113883.10.20.22.2.15:2015-08-01)
Potential Challenges
Restrictions on Standardization (e.g. proprietary code)	None.
Restrictions on Use (e.g. licensing, user fees)	None
Privacy and Security Concerns	No unique P&S concerns
Estimate of Overall Burden	This data element is already fully implemented in the majority of certified health IT products under the §170.315(a)(12) Family health history certification criteris

ONC Evaluation Details Each submitted Data Element has been evaluated based on the following criteria. The overall Level classification is a composite of the maturity based on these individual criteria. This information can be used to identify areas that require additional work to raise the overall classification level and consideration for inclusion in future versions of USCDI
Criterion #1 Maturity - Current Standards	Level 2 - Data element is represented by a terminology standard or SDO-balloted technical specification or implementation guide.
Criterion #2 Maturity - Current Use	Level 2 - Data element is captured, stored, or accessed in multiple production EHRs or other HIT modules from more than one developer.
Criterion #3 Maturity - Current Exchange	Level 1 - Data element is electronically exchanged between two production EHRs or other HIT modules using available interoperability standards.
Criterion #4 Use Case(s) - Breadth of Applicability	Level 2 - Use cases apply to most care settings or specialties.

Comment

Submitted by david_rocha on 2025-01-17

"Family Health History" listed as a data class and data element

This could be an issue if ASTP decided to transform USCDI into an ontology.

In Protege, for example, I would not be able to add the data element since it has the exact same name, spelling, and formatting.

The data element should be more specific than the data class.

Submitted by rdillaire on 2024-09-30

CMS-CCSQ Sup. for Family Health History data element for USCDIv6

Data Element: Family Health History (Level 2)

Recommendation: Add the Family Health History data element to Final USCDI v6.
Rationale: The Family Health History data element is defined as “a patient's family health history in accordance with the familial concepts or expressions included in, at a minimum, the version of the standard in §70.207(a)(12)” and is one of the most fundamental portions of a person’s medical history. This data element is already fully implemented in most certified health IT products under the §70.315(a)(12) Family Health History certification criterion. This data element enables a user to record, change, and access information about a patient’s first degree relative within the said patient’s record. SNOMED CT is the baseline standard to capture this data element, although health IT developers are allowed to use other standards, such as LOINC, to capture elements of family health history.

Submitted by Steven.Lane on 2023-09-20

Support for Family Health History in USCDI

Family Health History information is critical to clinicians' ability to personalize care based on individual risk factors and to understand a patient in the context of their family system. While some clinicians will add diagnoses corresponding to specific items related to family health history or circumstances to a patient's problem list, this is done inconsistently and not all relevant items exist in the ICD hierarchy. Also, as the industry moves increasingly toward utilizing and analyzing EHI with new analytical tools, such as AI and ML, the value of codified family health history to inform actionable insights will continue to increase.

Submitted by aphillips@imoh… on 2022-04-28

Level 2 Data Class: Family Health History

Level 2 Data Class: Family Health History

Level 2 Data Element: Family Health History[AK1]

IMO supports the inclusion of the proposed Level 2 Data Class for Family Health History and the specified level 2 data element for Family Health History. The data class and data element are currently specified as part of ONC HIT certification criteria, and SNOMED CT and LOINC are widely implemented to capture family health history.