In response to an advanced notice of proposed rulemaking on the use of metadata standards to support health data exchange, the College of Healthcare Information Management (CHIME) is urging government officials to study the complex issues more closely and to work with industry partners to develop and test metadata standards before considering any broader action.
In comments submitted today, the Ann Arbor, Mich.-based professional organization of healthcare IT leaders told the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC) that current thinking around metadata standards needs further investigation through established processes before being codified into regulations.
Two initiatives being undertaken by ONC to help inform metadata and health information exchange include Query Health and Data Segmentation. Together, these pilot projects are expected to advance understanding of how metadata could be used within healthcare, but they are very early in development.
CHIME believes that these and other initiatives hold promise, but that metadata standards being currently considered for use are underdeveloped. CHIME recommends that ONC investigate metadata standards using an inclusive volunteer network of technical experts established through the Standards & Interoperability (S&I) Framework.
