The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology has inked a cooperative agreement with The Sequoia Project to support nationwide healthcare interoperability.
The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) has inked a cooperative agreement with The Sequoia Project to support nationwide healthcare interoperability.
The Sequoia Project will serve as the Recognized Coordinating Entity (RCE) to develop, update, implement, and maintain the Common Agreement and QHIN Technical Framework (QFT).
The Common Agreement will create the baseline technical and legal requirements for health information networks to share electronic health information and is part of ONC’s implementation of the 21st Century Cures Act.
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“The Sequoia Project was selected through a competitive process to help with the interoperable flow of health information. We look forward to working in close collaboration with The Sequoia Project and across the broader health system to create a Common Agreement that best serves the needs of all stakeholders,” said Don Rucker, MD, national coordinator for health information technology.
The Sequoia Project is a public-private collaborative chartered to help implement secure, interoperable nationwide health information exchange. The organization focuses on solving health IT interoperability challenges by bringing together stakeholders from government and private sector healthcare to address the opportunities and challenges in improving U.S. electronic health data sharing.
In the Cures Act, Congress directed HHS through the Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement (TEFCA) to promote the exchange of electronic health information among health information networks. The Cures Act stress on trusted exchange is a significant step towards promoting transparency and competition across the healthcare delivery system by addressing technical obstacles and corporate practices that impede the safe and suitable sharing of electronic health information.
In addition to the Common Agreement, the RCE will work with ONC to identify and monitor Qualified Health Information Networks (QHIN), alter and update associated technical specifications for QHIN, and communicate with stakeholders through virtual public listening sessions, adjudicate noncompliance with the Common Agreement, and propose strategies to support TEFCA beyond the cooperative agreement’s period of performance.
“We have learned through our own operations that seamless nationwide sharing of health information is most readily enabled through trust agreements, consistent policy and technical requirements, and appropriate, balanced governance to provide assurance of trust and interoperability. We look forward to working alongside ONC as the Recognized Coordinating Entity,” said Mariann Yeager, CEO of The Sequoia Project.
Date: September 09, 2019
Source: HITInfrastructure