The Workgroup for Electronic Data Interchange (WEDI), a nonprofit authority on the use of health IT to create efficiencies in healthcare information exchange, announced the development of its newest Workgroup focused on Genomic Data Exchange. The goal of the workgroup is to further evaluate and create a common industry vision and roadmap on how to incorporate genomic data into the American healthcare system. Katherine Johansen Taber, Ph.D., director of the American Medical Association’s Personalized Medicine Program; Adam Scott, vice president of consumer clinical strategy at Aetna; and Grant Wood, senior IT strategist for Intermountain Healthcare’s Clinical Genetics Institute will serve as co-chairs for the WEDI Genomic Data Exchange Workgroup.
Origin of Genomic Data Exchange Workgroup
The newly formed Workgroup emerged from an initial investigation into a wide range of genomic information exchange issues – including genomic data formats, exchange, privacy controls, security, storage, management, governance, care coordination and payer-provider collaboration – from the preliminary taskforce in the first quarter of 2015. The preliminary taskforce developed and just released a report on its initial findings, “Issues and Trends in Electronic Genomic Information Exchange,” which spurred the creation of the Genomic Data Exchange Workgroup and identifies specific recommendations for areas of further focus for the new Workgroup within the three domains of Data Access and Integration, Data Exchange and Data Governance.
“With all of the latest advances in genomic sequencing, profiling, testing and phenotyping, the healthcare industry is quickly entering a completely new era of personalized medicine. This progress will require more advanced health information technology, capable of rapidly accessing, exchanging and processing information to fully inform diagnostic, treatment and prevention decisions at the point of care,” said Devin Jopp, Ed.D, president and CEO of WEDI in an official statement. “It is important that WEDI, as the leading authority on health IT and health information exchange, bring this issue to the forefront and investigate not only how to build a national infrastructure to support this genomic data, but how to create seamless workflows to enhance the delivery and coordination of care.”
WEDI invites industry professionals with a related focus and interest in furthering the development of coordinated genomic data exchange to participate in the WEDI Workgroup. For more information on participating in the Genomic Data Exchange Workgroup, please contact Emily Smith at esmith@wedi.org.
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