The HL7 FHIR (Fast Health Interoperability Resources) development community recently announced a new development program focused on consumer engagement: the Consumer Centered Data Exchange (CCDE) Track, designed to make it easier for patients to take control of their health data. Several consumer-controlled app (CCA) developers and EHR vendors will participate in a two-day CCDE Connectathon, Sept. 8-10, 2017, leading up to the HL7 31st Annual Plenary & Working Group Meeting in San Diego being held Sept. 9-15.
Connectathons bring together FHIR developers to explore interoperability via live-testing scenarios.
Participants at this connectathon will use FHIR-based resources and related methods to examine how existing specifications support consumer-centered data exchange and address any gaps. They will focus on three different consumer engagement use cases: Consumer Access (healthcare provider to patient via their choice of app); Consumer Directed Exchange (patient to provider via the patient’s app); and Consumer Initiated Exchange (exchange between providers as directed and authorized by the patient).
Among the organizations listed on an HL7 wiki page as participating in this effort are:
• National Association for Trusted Exchange
• Michigan Health Information Network Shared Services
• HSS IDEA Lab
• Cerner
• EMR Direct
• DXC
• CareEvolution
• Get Real Health
• Humetrix
• MedFusion
“HL7 and the FHIR development community consider consumer access to be a national priority and we couldn’t agree more,” said Get Real Health CEO and Founding Partner Robin Wiener in a prepared statement. “We believe consumers should have easy access to all their health information, and we view events like this as a vital step toward ensuring greater interoperability.”
The wiki page describes three potential categories of use case:
• Consumer Access (CA): In these use cases data held by a Source EMR is transferred to a Consumer Controlled App (CCA).
• Consumer Initiated Exchange (CIE): In these use cases the actions of a Consumer result in the transfer of data from a Source EMR to a Target EMR (via Consent or otherwise where the data is exchange amongst Covered Entities at the Direction of the Consumer and is not TPO)
• Consumer Directed Exchange (CDE): In these use cases data held by a CCA is transferred to a Target EMR
The wiki page also describes a scenario they would like to use FHIR to address:
Paul is a VA beneficiary living in Alaska. Because of the remoteness of his location, there aren’t a lot of specialists at his local VA facility for him to see and as a result Paul frequently gets referred to local civilian specialists outside of the VA. Following specialist visit(s) Paul would like to ensure that the PHI generated by the specialist as a result of the encounter is shared with his providers at the VA. Thus, there is a need to transfer information from the specialist to the VA record that his VA providers access.
Paul uses a Consumer Controlled Application (CCA), where he is able to maintain records from all of his providers in one place.
Paul would like to cause relevant EMR data to be transferred from the specialist's system (the Source EMR) to the VA's EMR (the Target EMR).
