Re: GCN Daily Updates Story: Uncle Sam issues dat a-sharingstandards for medical info (from Gary)

["R. Allen Wyke" <emtc@nc.rr.com>]

Another from Gary...

> From: "Ham, Gary A" <hamg@BATTELLE.ORG>
> To: 'R. Allen Wyke' <emtc@nc.rr.com>
> Subject: RE: [emergency] Re: GCN Daily Updates Story: Uncle Sam issues dat a-sharing standards for medical info
> Date: 09 Apr 2003 16:34:41 -0400
> 
> HL7 is an EDI standard with a long history.  I believe that there is also an
> object model based upon the standard.  I used it when I worked on the DoD
> Computer Based Patient Record prototyping effort which was the precursor to
> the announced work below.  The information structures are pretty strong.
> Since I have not seen it in about three years, I would not be surprised if
> they have built an XML translation of the standards.  That said, it is a
> Commercial standard.  You are supposed to buy it in order to use it.  
>   
> 
> R/S
> 
> Gary Ham
> 
> P.s. I still need to change my e-mail at OASIS in order to post.  I am
> receiving posts, however. 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: R. Allen Wyke [mailto:emtc@nc.rr.com] 
> Sent: Wednesday, April 09, 2003 4:24 PM
> To: stephen.jepsen@oracle.com
> Cc: emergency@lists.oasis-open.org
> Subject: [emergency] Re: GCN Daily Updates Story: Uncle Sam issues
> data-sharing standards for medical info
> 
> 
> Steve, this is a good find!
> 
> Group: one of the things we discussed as we were finalizing the initial
> Requirements document was areas around public health. From the looks of this
> article, an electronic infrastructure/set of standards has already been
> identified and/or started to be created. With this in place, our role to
> provide additional incident and emergency related aspects should now be more
> focused, which is a good thing.
> 
> Rick: from an infrastructure framework perspective, this is another area we
> should look into. Other than providing an hardware-to-software interface,
> this looks to be missing.
> 
> Art: you might want to look at the "messaging" standard referenced (Health
> Level 7).
> 
> Any additional thoughts certainly appreciated - Allen
> 
> On Mon, 2003-04-07 at 13:18, stephen.jepsen@oracle.com wrote:
> > You have been sent this message from stephen.jepsen@oracle.com as a 
> > courtesy of GCN Daily Updates (http://www.gcn.com).
> > 
> > Allen,
> > 
> > FYI...
> > 
> > The entire article may be viewed at 
> > http://www.gcn.com/vol1_no1/daily-updates/21493-1.html
> > 
> > Uncle Sam issues data-sharing standards for medical info
> > 
> > 03/25/03
> > By Vanessa Jo Roberts, GCN Staff
> > 
> > The government has issued governmentwide standards for coding and 
> > sharing medical records.
> > 
> > The standards, released last week and mandatory for all federal 
> > agencies, are the work of the Defense, Health and Human Services, and 
> > Veterans Affairs departments.
> > 
> > The three departments developed the data specifications under the 
> > rubric of the Consolidated Health Informatics initiative, one of the 
> > 25 Quicksilver e-government projects.
> > 
> > Currently, federal agencies that provide health care services use many 
> > different coding systems, making it difficult to maintain and share 
> > up-to-date information, the teams officials said.
> > 
> > The coding standards are the first of a series of standards that will 
> > make up a National Health Information Infrastructure envisioned by the 
> > Office of Management and Budgets e-government team.
> > 
> > Benefits from using common health care standards include improved 
> > patient safety and a reduction in the cost of health care, Dr. William 
> > Winkenwerder, assistant secretary of Defense for health affairs, said 
> > in a statement.
> > 
> > Ultimately, the goal is to promote use of the standards across the 
> > health care industry, not just within the government.
> > 
> > Its important for the federal government to lead by example by 
> > selecting and adopting these standards, HHS secretary Tommy G. 
> > Thompson said. But, he added, to assure appropriate privacy 
> > protections for personal health information, it will fall to the 
> > private sector to make use of the standards widespread.
> > 
> > The Consolidated Health Informatics team cobbled the new standards 
> > together from formats now in use.
> > 
> > The initiative will require agencies to adopt five standards:
> > 
> > For messaging, the Health Level 7 standard to share patient 
> > information, such as entries of orders, scheduling of appointments and 
> > tests, and coordination of admittance, discharge and transfer records 
> > during in-patient care
> > 
> > For ordering drugs from pharmacies, standards created by the National 
> > Council on Prescription Drug Programs
> > 
> > For systems integration, IEEE 1073 series to plug medical devices into 
> > information and computer systems so health care providers can monitor 
> > information and support telemedicine services
> > 
> > For diagnostic data retrieval, the Digital Imaging Communications in 
> > Medicine standards, to capture information from manufacturers devices 
> > and medical staff systems
> > 
> > For laboratory records, the Logical Observation Identifier Name Codes 
> > to support the exchange of clinical lab results.
> > 
> > For now, there is no deadline for agencies to adopt the standards. 
> > Instead, agencies will be expected to convert to them as they upgrade 
> > medical and health care systems for inclusion in OMB's planned 
> > National Health Information Infrastructure.
> > 
> > 
> >  2003 PostNewsweek Tech Media, a division of Post Newsweek Media
> -- 
> R. Allen Wyke
> Chair, Emergency Management TC
> emtc@nc.rr.com
> http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/emergency
> 
-- 
R. Allen Wyke
Chair, Emergency Management TC
emtc@nc.rr.com
http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/emergency