The Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC) is seeking comment on the Interoperability Standards Advisory (ISA) in advance of the 2018 Reference Edition publication.
Comments will be accepted until November 20.
The ISA process represents the model by which ONC will coordinate the identification, assessment, and public awareness of interoperability standards and implementation specifications that can be used by the healthcare industry to address specific interoperability needs including, but not limited to, interoperability for clinical, public health, and research purposes.
In an ONC Buzz Blog post, ONC’s Office of Standards and Technology Director Steve Posnack wrote that the ISA is a “dynamic, coordinated catalog of the standards and implementation specifications that can be used to meet interoperability needs in healthcare.” “The ISA will play a role in ONC’s efforts to implement the 21st Century Cures Act and serves as a way to harness industry input on the interoperability standards that are a best fit for a particular use in health information technology (health IT). Through this open process, we have engaged a full spectrum of stakeholders to continue to make the ISA more detailed and comprehensive each year,” Posnack wrote.
Last year, ONC shifted from a static “document-based” ISA to a more interactive online platform, which has allowed for ongoing updates to occur throughout the year, Posnack stated.
Posnack also said that ONC has added a number of new components to the ISA, including consumer-based interoperability needs as recommended by the Health IT Standards Committee, the former Federal Advisory Committee, being replaced by the Health IT Advisory Committee, and a new section that includes administrative standards and implementation specifications that were developed in coordination with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). The ISA also now includes educational and informational resources to allow for better understanding of health IT interoperability concepts, he wrote.
