The Health Information Center of the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) will use the FHIR standard to create electronic common data element models and profiles that describe key concepts related to kidney and other chronic diseases.
The goal is to create electronic care plans intended to facilitate longitudinal transfer of key patient data across settings, providing access to the patient and all healthcare professionals who provide care to the patient. These eCare plans rely on data standards to ensure that information can be reliably transferred from setting to setting, as well as on existing infrastructures for sharing health data.
For this project, NIDDK has contracted with San Diego-based Cognitive Medical Systems, which will use FHIR to develop a comprehensive Implementation Guide for NIDDK’s e-Care plan and then create applications and pilots to demonstrate that the standard and tool sets enable clinicians to better manage patients with multiple chronic conditions, including chronic kidney disease, Type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease and pain.
“The healthcare system can be complex and fragmented, especially for patients with multiple chronic conditions, who typically have many providers, medications and treatments,” said Douglas W. Burke, president of Cognitive Medical Systems, in a statement. “The solution to this fragmentation is better care coordination, facilitated by longitudinal, shared care plans. We understand both the complexities of the clinical health field and the technologies that can successfully address them. We’re excited to begin this important work!”
Chevy Chase, Md.-based EMI Advisors, a technology and innovation consulting firm that provides health data advisory services across the health, human services, and information technology sectors, will serve as Cognitive’s partner on the initiative.
“The standards development community has made significant strides in developing and publishing robust health data standards to support interoperable data exchange,” said Evelyn Gallego, CEO of EMI Advisors, in a statement. “We are at a pivotal point to expand on this work to enable person-centered e-care planning for individuals living with multiple chronic diseases. We are delighted to partner with Cognitive and support NIDDK in the development and testing of a FHIR enabled e-Care Plan.”
