Health IT Standards Committee: Recommendations to the National Coordinator for Health IT

The Health IT Standards Committee (HITSC), a committee established in accordance with the federal advisory committee act (FACA), provided recommendations on health IT standards issues to the National Coordinator for his consideration. A formal transmittal letter must transmit the recommendations from the HITSC to the National Coordinator. Once the FACA has been satisfied (i.e., a transmittal letter sent from the committee to the National Coordinator), the National Coordinator can then determine the disposition of the recommendations.

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February 7, 2017

At the February 7, 2017, meeting, the Health IT Standards Committee approved Phase II recommendations from the 2017 Interoperability Standards Advisory Task Force around updates and improvements to the ISA.

July 27, 2017

At the July 27, 2017, meeting, the Health IT Standards Committee approved Phase I recommendations from the 2017 Interoperability Standards Advisory Task Force around updates and improvements to the ISA.

July 22, 2016

At the May 17, 2016 meeting, the Health IT Standards Committee approved recommendations from the Precision Medicine Task Force around the standards needed to support the President’s Precision Medicine Initiative.

January 29, 2016

At the December 10, 2015 meeting, the Health IT Standards Committee approved recommendations from the Transitional Vocabulary Task Force regarding whether transitional terminologies should be eliminated as alternatives in reporting to federal quality measure programs using EHR-captured clinical data elements.

September 25, 2015

At the September 22, 2015 meeting, The Health IT Standards Committee approved recommendations from the Precision Medicine Task Force around the standards to support the President’s Precision Medicine Initiative.

June 5, 2015

At the December 10, 2014 meeting, the Health IT Standards Committee approved recommendations from the Transport and Security Workgroup related to user authentication to:

    1. Adoption of a multi-factor authentication certification criterion
    2. Certification criterion for encrypting authentication credentials (e.g., passwords) at-rest

May 20, 2015

At the May 20, 2015 meeting, the Health IT Standards Committee approved advice from across the workgroups on ONC’s 2015 Edition Health Information Technology Certification Criteria, 2015 Edition Base Electronic Health Record Definition, and ONC Health IT Certification Program Modifications (Certification NPRM).

April 22, 2015

At the April 22, 2015 meeting, the Health IT Standards Committee meeting approved recommendations from the Architecture, Services and APIs (ASA) Workgroup. The ASA Workgroup sought to create a framework for evaluating technology policy surrounding health information technology. An informed framework on key architectural principles and patterns is useful guidance for important policy statements (such as the Interoperability Roadmap), standards and implementation guidance, and certification criteria.

April 22, 2015

At the April 22, 2015 meeting, the Health IT Standards Committee approved comments from across the Committee’s workgroups related to the Shared Nationwide Interoperability Roadmap.

March 26, 2015

At the March 18, 2015 meeting, the Health IT Standard’s Committee approved recommendations from the S&I Task Force. The Task Force was charged with identifying whether there is a continued need for the S&I Framework, identified ways the current S&I Framework can be improved or enhanced, and considered alternatives to address industry needs.

February 12, 2015

At the January 27, 2015 meeting, the Health IT Standard’s Committee approved recommendations from the Data Provenance Task Force. The Task Force reviewed the  S&I Data Provenance Initiative’s work and made recommendations regarding initial steps in the area of data provenance standardization that will be the most broadly applicable and immediately useful to the industry.

January 20, 2015

At the joint Committee Meeting on October 15, 2014, the Health IT Policy and Health IT Standards Committee approved recommendations from the JASON Task Force in response to the JASON report.

April 28, 2014

At the April 24, 2014 meeting, the Health IT Standard’s Committee approved comments from the Clinical Quality, Implementation, and Privacy and Security Workgroups related to ONC’s Voluntary 2015 Edition Electronic Health Record Certification Criteria: Interoperability Updates and Regulatory Improvements Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM).

August 30, 2013

The Health IT Standards Committee's Nationwide Health Information Network (NwHIN) Power Team prepared recommendations around the types of transport standards used to support health information exchanges. The recommendations were presented to the HITSC on August 22, 2013 and accepted for transmittal to the National Coordinator.

July 23, 2013

At the December 19, 2012 meeting, the Health IT Standards Committee approved recommendations from the Vocabulary Task Force on the need to include current dental terminology (CDT) as a standard vocabulary for 2014 certified EHR technology to support Meaningful Use stage 2.

March 23, 2013

At the December 19, 2012 meeting, the Health IT Standards Committee approved recommendations from the Privacy and Security Workgroup related to the privacy and security criteria for EHR Modules.

At the December 19, 2012 meeting, the Health IT Standards Committee approved recommendations from the Implementation Workgroup related to waves one through four which included 36 of the 47 test procedures and the IWG 2014 Edition Draft Test Method.

November 2, 2012

At the October 17, 2012 meeting, the Health IT Standards Committee approved recommendations related to the Food and Drug Administration’s Unique Device Identification System Notice of Proposed Rulemaking.

August 30, 2012

At the August 30, 2012 meeting, the Health IT Standards Committee's Nationwide Health Information Network Power Team developed recommendations for standards evaluation criteria.

July 16, 2012

At the July 16, 2012 meeting, the Health IT Standards Committee's Vocabulary Task Force developed recommendations for the use of vocabulary standards by measure developers.

June 27, 2012

At the June 27, 2012 meeting, the Health IT Standards Committee provided comments regarding the Office of the National Coordinator’s (ONC) Nationwide Health Information Network: Conditions for Trusted Exchange Request for Information (RFI).

June 8, 2012

At the May 24, 2012 meeting, the Health IT Standards Committee’s approved recommendations from the Clinical Quality Workgroup.

May 7, 2012

At the May 7, 2012 meeting, the Health IT Standards Committee provided comments regarding the Office of the National Coordinator’s (ONC) Standards and Certification Criteria (S&CC) Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) for Standards, Implementation Specifications, and Certification Criteria for Electronic Health Record Technology, 2014 Edition.

January 17, 2012

At the January 17, 2012 meeting, the Health IT Standards Committee provided recommendations regarding the development of the Certification Process for Stage 2 MU.

October 21, 2011

At the September 28, 2011 meeting, the Health IT Standards Committee endorsed recommendations of its Privacy and Security Workgroup on security-related certification criteria, standards and implementation specifications for EHR certification.

September 28, 2011

At the September 28, 2011 meeting, the Health IT Standards Committee approved recommendations to the National Coordinator/HHS regarding standards and specifications for the nationwide health information network.

At the September 28, 2011 meeting, the Health IT Standards Committee also approved recommendations to the National Coordinator/HHS on: 1) e-prescribing of discharge medications; 2) public health content exchange standards and implementation specifications; and 3) draft certification criteria and associated standards and implementation specifications for EHR technology certification to support the next stage of meaningful use.

September 9, 2011

At the September 9, 2011 meeting, the Health IT Standards Committee approved recommendations to the National Coordinator/HHS on the assignment of code sets to clinical concepts [data elements] for use in quality measures.

At the August 17, 2011 meeting, the Health IT Standards Committee approved recommendations from the Clinical Quality Measures Workgroup and Vocabulary Task Force jointly.

June 23, 2011

At the June 22, 2011 meeting, the Health IT Standards Committee endorsed recommendations on newer versions of the standard code sets adopted by the Secretary of Department of Health and Human Services (the Secretary) in subpart B of Part 170 of the Code of Federal Regulations.

At the June 22, 2011 meeting, the Health IT Standards Committee endorsed recommendations for provenance metadata accompanying clinical data.

April 28, 2011

At the April 28, 2011 meeting, the Health IT Standards Committee made recommendations to the National Coordinator/HHS on standards for governance, funding and infrastructure of controlled vocabularies, value sets and vocabulary subsets to be used primarily to further interoperability between providers and the systems they deploy as defined by the various stages of Meaningful Use Objectives.

At the April 2010 meeting, the Health IT Standards Committee approved recommendations from the Clinical Operations Workgroup/Vocabulary Task Force. 

April 12, 2011

At the April 12, 2011 meeting, the Health IT Standards Committee made recommendations to the National Coordinator/HHS on the use of digital certificates, specifically recommendations on the requirements and evaluation criteria for digital certificates.

At the April 2011 meeting, the Health IT Standards Committee's approved recommendations from the Privacy & Security Standards Workgroup.

March 4, 2010

At the March 4, 2010 meeting, the Health IT Standards Committee made recommendations to the National Coordinator on (1) the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (CMS) Notice of Proposed Rulemaking regarding CMS’ incentive program for the meaningful use of EHRs; and (2) the Interim Final Rule (IFR) on Initial Set of Standards, Implementation Specifications, and Certification Criteria for EHRs.

At the February 2010 meeting, the Health IT Standards Committee approved recommendations from the Clinical Operations, Clinical Quality, and Privacy & Security Workgroups.

August 20, 2009

At the August 20, 2009 meeting, the Health IT Standards Committee approved recommendations from the Clinical Quality, Clinical Operations, and Privacy & Security Workgroups to the National Coordinator/HHS on 1) appropriate quality measures for the 2011 Meaningful Use Measures; 2) content and vocabulary standards supporting Meaningful Use for 2011 as well as a gradual transition plan to 2013 and; 3) privacy and security standards and related Meaningful Use measures.