Harmonization of healthcare records stored in differing records management systems is the mission of the Healthcare Information Technology Standards Panel. The Panel is the collaboration between SCRA, the American National Standards Institute, Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society, Booz-Allen-Hamilton, and many other stakeholders from technology and healthcare fields. The program is sponsored by the Department of Health and Human Services.

Improved Treatment through Rapid, Accurate Sharing of Healthcare Records

Standards can enable very rapid and accurate exchange of critical patient information from a travelers’ home town doctor to the emergency room physician thousands of miles away. The goal is to enable a patient’s X-Ray, MRI, and CAT-SCAN records to be shared with experts at several medical universities and insurers simultaneously so that the best possible treatment decisions can be made. Achieving this goal requires interoperability among medical diagnostic equipment, clinics, hospitals, insurers, and the patient’s home town healthcare providers.

An SCRA collaboration is developing guidelines for the use of existing standards to enable effective sharing of healthcare information, making quality healthcare affordable and available. Broad industry involvement provides the diverse perspectives needed to assure wide-ranging applicability and will provide a distributed testbed for real-world deployment.

Access to crucial decision-making information by all appropriate healthcare professionals results in reduced costs, increased patient safety, and better quality care. These results are so highly valued by the U.S. government that federal agencies are required to use the SCRA-led team’s specifications when sharing healthcare information with public or private organizations.

Providing Technology to Improve Care in Rural and Underserved Communities

SCRA is validating the effectiveness of an Intelligent Care Manager application and telehealth to improve quality of care for chronic disease. The Intelligent Care Manager is a web-based application to enhance care team coordination and adherence to best clinical practices while it provides an “automated personal trainer” to help the patient more effectively manage chronic disease.

To integrate the Intelligent Care Manager with existing systems, a standards-based interface extracts data from a Community Health Center patient registry and populates either Electronic Health Records or a medical management system.