The Standard

2023 Accomplishments Position Industry for Year Ahead

Substantial progress has been made this year on HL7 Da Vinci Project Implementation Guides (IGs), which describe how to use HL7’s Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (HL7 FHIR®) standard for exchanging data to support value-based healthcare and implementations of the guides.

Sizing Up Accomplishments

At the December Da Vinci Community Roundtable, Hans Buitendijk, Da Vinci Project Steering Committee Vice Chair, reviewed progress this year and offered an outlook for 2024.

“We have a number of organizations across the spectrum that have adopted one or more of our [FHIR implementation] capabilities. … That's fantastic in the short number of years that this initiative started to look at what is necessary to make it happen,” Buitendijk said.

“We currently have about eight publishing updates that have been accomplished and quite a few ballot processes that are in flight and being planned for, and there is a good amount of commitment to making this happen. So, we really need to be proud of what we have achieved to date, and particularly in the last year.”

In the year ahead, alignment with emerging regulations, including the final CMS Interoperability Rule, will be a top priority, he pointed out.

Interoperability efforts must go beyond a general set of data to ensure adequate support for public health, research, quality measures and more, he added. “We are all going to impact the ability and the opportunity to share more data over time,” he said.

The key to advancing interoperability by leveraging FHIR, he stressed, is to involve many different parties and develop “the same language where we have a minimum set of capabilities that everybody can support, and leaving room … to grow, to explore, to define new things.”

He also pointed out: “We must continuously raise the bar for what we can exchange and determine what is relevant across many different stakeholders that we should all do in the same way … because the data that we have covered so far is still only a part of the variety of data exchanges that are relevant and can benefit from improvements."

Register Now for January Virtual FHIR Connectathon and Gain Perspective from a New Participant: the Value-Based Performance Reporting Use Case Co-Lead

Those interested in gaining a better understanding of how the HL7 Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resource (FHIR®) standard works – and helping to develop specification refinements – should consider attending the upcoming connectathon, which will be held online January 16-18, 2024.

“Connectathons can be an effective way for organizations to initiate or advance their FHIR capabilities,’ Viet Nguyen, MD, HL7 Da Vinci Project Technical Director and HL7 Chief Implementation Officer, says.

Nguyen notes that the numerous tracks within the connectathon event allows organizations to pick and choose which tracks they want to emphasize based on their regulatory or strategic needs.

First-time HL7 FHIR Connectathon participant Teresa Younkin, HL7 Value-Based Performance Reporting (VBPR) Project Co-Lead and Senior Consultant at Point-of-Care Partners, attended the September 2023 event. She says, “The value of the connectathons is to actually get to see the systems work and move from the theoretical to the concrete.”

According to Younkin, connectathons are an opportunity to bridge the gap between the technical and the business. It goes beyond just exchanging bits and bytes; instead, you can see in real time how the data could be ingested and utilized in an organization. Many reference implementations have simple interfaces to make computer code human readable. Having the ability to physically see how this data exchange impacts workflows opens cross functional dialogs, addressing communication gaps that traditionally exist between technical teams and business teams.

Discussion offers insights on real-world implementations of Da Vinci’s Implementation Guides

Join us on Wednesday, December 6, from 4 – 5:30 p.m. EST for the December Community Roundtable presentation titled, “A Year of Active Implementation: HL7 Da Vinci Project Year-end Review and 2024 Plans.”

At this combined Member Forum, Operating Committee and Community Roundtable, Da Vinci Project leaders will share the latest on use case progress and implementations, regulatory response and alignment, and how HL7 FHIR brings value to implementers and the marketplace. The session will conclude with considerations and opportunities for 2024.

Presenters will be:

• Hans Buitendijk, HL7 Da Vinci Project Steering Committee Vice Chair, and Director, Interoperability Strategy, Oracle Health
• Crystal Kallem, Project Manager, HL7 Da Vinci Project, and Senior Consultant, Point-of-Care Partners
• Jocelyn Keegan, Program Manager, HL7 Da Vinci Project, and Payer/Practice Lead, Point-of-Care Partners

The moderator will be Alix Goss, HL7 Da Vinci Project PMO, and Senior Consultant, Point-of-Care Partners.

In a recent episode of HIMSSTV, two healthcare interoperability visionaries, Deepak Sadagopan and Duncan Weatherston, took the virtual stage to share their expert insights on the critical FHIR pathway within the Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement (TEFCA) model. This captivating discussion was led by the co-chairs of the HL7 FHIR at Scale Taskforce (FAST), and it shed light on the transformative potential of FHIR in shaping the future of healthcare data exchange. 

Meet the FAST Community 

Before we dive into the interview, let's take a moment to acquaint ourselves with the remarkable work being done by the FAST community. The HL7 FHIR at Scale Taskforce is a dedicated group committed to identifying scalability challenges and defining solutions to overcome the barriers to broad FHIR adoption. FAST is addressing key areas like Security for Scalable Registration, Authorization, and Authentication and Interoperable Digital Identity and Patient Matching. The FAST community’s list of projects can be found on the FAST Confluence Project Page. An upcoming project on Consent is set to kick off soon, promising exciting prospects for healthcare data sharing. To get involved, reach out to fast@hl7.org. 

October Community Roundtable to be held October 25 from 4:00 – 5:30 p.m. ET

Are you interested in learning the latest on the following:

•  Clinical data exchange; coverage, transparency and burden
• Quality and risk use cases
• The HL7 Da Vinci Project’s Implementation Guide foundational assets?

If so, register now for the next Da Vinci Community Roundtable, to be held Oct. 25 from 4:00 – 5:30 p.m. ET. The session will offer timely updates on changes made in 2023 to the Da Vinci Implementation Guides and offer an outlook for next year.

“The Power of Collaboration: 2023 HL7 Da Vinci Project Implementation Guide Progress,” will feature presenters discussing Implementation Guide functional enhancements as well as the current status and maturity of the guides to help inform your planning for next year’s HL7 Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (HL7® FHIR®) implementation staffing and allocations. Attendees will also learn where they can provide needed input and participation in the use cases.

The Da Vinci Project is a private-sector initiative that accelerates the adoption of HL7 FHIR as the standard to support and integrate value-based care (VBC) data exchange across communities. The goal of the project is to help payers and providers positively impact clinical, quality, cost and care management outcomes, enabling providers to see the right data at the right time for patient-centered care.

The presenters will include:

• Michael Gould, Associate Vice President, Interoperability Strategy, ZeOmega and HL7 Da Vinci Project Architectural Group Co-Lead
• Crystal Kallem, Project Manager, HL7 Da Vinci Project, and Senior Consultant, Point-of-Care-Partners
• Mark Scrimshire, PDex Project Lead & Implementation Guide Lead, HL7 Da Vinci Project, and Chief Interoperability Officer, Onyx Health
• Teresa Younkin, Value Based Performance Reporting Co-Lead, HL7 Da Vinci Project PMO and Senior Consultant, Point-of-Care Partners

The session is moderated by Alix Goss, HL7 Da Vinci Project PMO, and Senior Consultant, Point-of-Care Partners.

Webinar Highlights Real-World mCODE®-Compatible Structured Data Capture at University of Wisconsin Madison

At the September CodeX Community of Practice, which will be held on Friday, Sept. 29, 2023, 12 – 1 p.m. ET, Dr. Hamid Emamekhoo will present their approach to enhance structure data collection at University of Wisconsin Madison.

In his presentation, “Charting a New Course: Transforming Oncology Documentation to Enhance mCODE-Compatible Structured Data Capture,” he will discuss the process of creating optimized oncology specific note templates to prioritize the collection of encounter-specific treatment and disease-related data in a standardized manner. They focus on integrating data collection into the routine clinical workflow and improve the accuracy and quality of clinical documentation while collecting mCODE (minimal Common Oncology Data Elements)-compatible structure data that can ultimately improve the quality of care and patient outcomes.

The mCODE FHIR Implementation Guide is an open standard language for cancer data. Once adopted across the oncology community, mCODE promises to greatly increase the amount of high-quality shareable data for all cancer types, allowing data to be collected once and used for multiple purposes by clinicians and researchers to support patient care.

Multistakeholder Discussion Features Panelists from Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Epic, Florida Blue and Providence

Is your organization planning to use FHIR APIs to support data exchange for patient cost transparency (PCT)?

Join us on Wednesday, Sept. 27, from 4:00 – 5:30 p.m. for the September Community Roundtable presentation titled, “No Surprises Now: How the HL7 Da Vinci Project Accelerates Patient Cost Transparency.” Featuring a provider, payer, vendor and regulator, the multistakeholder discussion begins with an initial level setting session outlining the regulatory landscape, including the No Surprises Act, regulations and resources.

Next is a review of the HL7 Da Vinci Project’s PCT use case, which aims to develop a standard data exchange in support of patient cost transparency for devices, services and collection of services using FHIR APIs for exchange of data. The session will close with insights on the benefits of testing and implementation of PCT from the following presenters:

• Vanessa Candelora, HL7 Da Vinci Project Patient Cost Transparency Co-Lead and Senior Consultant, Point-of-Care-Partners
• Tina Mintyala, Program Manager, Revenue Cycle, Providence
• Alice O’Carroll, HL7 Da Vinci Project Patient Cost Transparency Co-Lead and Interoperability Product Manager, Florida Blue
• Carmen Smiley, Health Insurance Specialist, Division of Consumer Protection Policy, Consumer Support Group, Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services
• Zackery Welch, Executive Director, Pre-Services: Providence Health and Services
• Jacob Woodford, HL7 Da Vinci Project Patient Cost Transparency Co-Lead and Technical Services, Epic

The session is moderated by Alix Goss, HL7 Da Vinci Project PMO, and Senior Consultant, Point-of-Care Partners.

Hear Two Experts Discuss Real-World Genomics Data Exchange & Use Case
 Progress at Friday's Event

August brings a CodeX Community of Practice meeting that highlights advances in the Accelerator’s genomics domain, lessons learned and how the work improves research and patient care. The virtual session, which will be held on Friday, August 25, 2023, 12 – 1 p.m. ET., features two presentations:  

Advancing Genomics Data Exchange Using HL7 FHIR at the Molit Institut 

In the realm of genomic testing, most data presently is sent from the laboratory to health care organizations in the form of a PDF, which isolates this non-computable information within the EHR and limits access to the data for clinical care and research. 

Join us to hear how an early adopter of HL7 FHIR in this realm, Patrick Werner of the Molit Institut, is working to use FHIR to free the data. As a small independent non-profit research organization in Germany, Molit has received FHIR genomic reports for more than two years. Werner will share the opportunities, challenges and lessons learned with Molit’s successful genomics data exchange, including strategies implemented to ease data standards adoption across participating labs.  A review of Molit’s virtual tumor board for molecular oncology will showcase how Molit structures data and identifies possible gaps to assist identification of variants, prognosis on variants and recommendations.   

Presenter: 

Patrick Werner, Process Manager, Interoperability, Molit Institut