The Sequoia Project’s Data Usability Workgroup Targets Semantic Interoperability
The nonprofit Sequoia Project has established a Data Usability Workgroup to tackle barriers to interoperability by developing specific implementation guidance on clinical content for healthcare professionals in order to improve health information exchange.
Keith Campbell, director of informatics architecture at the U.S. Veterans Health Administration, once said that focusing interoperability efforts on standards such as FHIR is like starting to build a skyscraper on the third floor. Campbell said a focus on the ground floor involves semantic interoperability so that health systems don’t have to keep creating maps between different terminologies.
That seems to be what the Sequoia Project is seeking to address. The first goal of the Data Usability Workgroup is to develop three implementation guides focusing on data usability requirements for provider-to-provider, provider-to-public health agency, and healthcare entity-to-consumer information exchange. Since these use case topics are broad, the workgroup will identify priority elements to address within each of these use cases for its first deliverable.
In a prepared statement, Steven Lane, M.D., clinical informatics director, privacy, information security and interoperability at Sutter Health and chairman of the Sequoia Project’s board of directors, said, “This new workgroup is a broadening, next evolution of a similar previous industry effort I was a part of in 2018. That small, but passionate group has reached consensus on guidance to improve interoperable data exchange across their users, and now the Sequoia Project will build on this work to achieve even greater government and industry participation and adoption of the future implementation guides.”
The workgroup, which is part of The Sequoia Project’s Interoperability Matters cooperative, will host its first kick-off call on Thursday, Oct. 29 at 3:00 p.m. ET. The workgroup will meet every Thursday through April 1, 2021, and is open to all interested public and private stakeholders.
