On Tuesday, the ONC issued the final Shared Nationwide Interoperability Roadmap version 1.0 that outlines a clear path to catalyze the collaboration of stakeholders who are going to build and use the health IT infrastructure. The initial draft was released in January 2015 and received over 250 comments including input 25 federal partners, 90 individuals from 38 states from across the nation and the ONC Federal Advisory Committees (FACAs), which were incorporated into the finalized roadmap. The roadmap also integratea with the Federal Health IT Strategic Plan 2015-2020 (Plan) and2016 draft Interoperability Standards Advisory (ISA) that was released last month.
In a blog post announcement, Karen DeSalvo, M.D., national coordinator for health IT and acting assistant secretary for health states:
“The Roadmap is intended to be a living document. As we progress on this journey, future versions of the Roadmap will continue to be informed by public and private sector stakeholder feedback and will be updated as milestones are met and new challenges emerge.
While together we have come a long way and are thankful for your involvement thus far, much work still remains to be done. In the near-term, the collaboration of stakeholders to fulfill the calls to action and commitments is critical to advancing nationwide interoperability. Over time our collective efforts will shift to expand the interoperable health IT ecosystem to include other data sources and users that form a learning health system that puts the person at the center, can continuously improve care, public health and science through real-time data access. I am excited to continue on this journey with you to improve the health of consumers no matter where they live, work and play.”
The goals of the finalized interoperability roadmap are:
• 2015-2017: Send, receive, find and use priority data domains to improve health care quality and outcomes.
• 2018-2020: Expand data sources and users in the interoperable health IT ecosystem to improve health and lower costs.
• 2021-2024: Achieve nationwide interoperability to enable a learning health system, with the person at the center of a system that can continuously improve care, public health, and science through real-time data access.
The Roadmap is organized into three main sections:
1. Drivers
- supportive payment and regulatory environment
2. Policy and Technical Components
- Shared decision-making, rules of engagement and accountability
- Ubiquitous, secure network infrastructure
- Consistent understanding and technical representation of permission to collect, share and use identifiable health information
- Industry-wide testing and certification infrastructure
- Consistent data semantics
- Consistent data formats
- Standard, secure services
- Consistent, secure transport technique(s)
- Accurate individual data matching
- Health care directories and resource location
3. Outcomes
- Individuals have access to longitudinal electronic health information, can contribute to that information, and can direct it to any electronic location
- Provider workflows and practices include consistent sharing and use of patient information from all available and relevant sources
Click here to read the final Roadmap version 1.0.
