Hugh Gilenson of Data Motion and I co-wrote this article published on Healthcare IT Today on Direct messaging. It is something Hugh and I have been talking about in some form for a while. I know FHIR and APIs will be a big boon to healthcare interoperability, but we should not forget the success that Direct messaging has been. We talk about why its relevance is greater than ever. Check it out here. #Direct #CMS #ONC

This week Keith Boone made an interesting post on the future of FHIR and pontificating on which version ONC will adopt on its forthcoming regulations around 21st Century Cures and information blocking. He sees two possible choices: FHIR DSTU2 with Argonaut, or the newer FHIR R4 with US Core, either of these with SMART on FHIR, and his bet is on FHIR R4 with US Core and SMART on FHIR. Like Keith, I expect ONC to adopt a specific set of FHIR requirements instead of the general

Perhaps lost amidst the waiting for the proposed ONC rule on information sharing and 21st Century Cures support was ONC releasing three very detailed guidance documents dealing with post-certification surveillance: Overview Post-Certification Assessment Disclosure of Material Information Surveillance You can find the three documents here identified as Program Policy Resource #18 dated October 5, 2018. The three documents work together and provide clarity and insight into the

I have had several discussions recently asking "why aren't more developers certifying for 2015 Edition" and I thought I would explore this subject and give some reasons why developers should stop waiting and start on 2015 Edition work. I have written multiple times about the slow rollout of 2015 Edition certified products so I don't find the current situation surprising. In fact, I think there are two key reasons for this. 1. The CMS habit of changing requirements. Regulatory

ONC had initially planned on releasing their rule updating their certification program regarding the implementation of the 21st Century Cures act in April, but it has now been delayed to September. For those who were not aware of it, here is what the abstract currently states: The rulemaking would update the ONC Health IT Certification Program (Program) by implementing certain provisions of the 21st Century Cures Act, including conditions and maintenance of certification requ

The good and the bad and the ugly of ONC 2015 Edition certification.

With the launch of 2015 Edition certification testing back in April 2016, we are now nearing the two year mark of this 2015 Edition certification period in health IT. With the new year here, it would be a good time to take a fresh look at what is currently certified on the CHPL for 2015 Edition. Over the years, I have tracked the state of EHR certification at various points to give us some historical perspective, and I want to see where we stand and perhaps guess at where we

A few weeks ago ONC announced a major change in their testing and certification process. They introduced “self-declaration” as a method for ONC-ATLs to accept test results for over half of the criteria in 2015 Edition, and ONC announced a scaling back on their focus on randomized surveillance. It has generated significant conversation, including notable criticism by some. My thoughts on what they got right, what they got wrong, and what people are overlooking. What They Got R

In April 2016, ONC-ACBs opened their doors for 2015 Edition certification. We are now nearing the one year mark, and it is a good time to take stock at how certification is proceeding and what types of products are getting certified. As we noted last year, the launch was far slower than with 2011 Edition and 2014 Edition, but it was assumed things would pick up, especially with the release of the MIPS rule. Yet, the pace of actual certifications has remained significantly beh

A few weeks ago, ONC made some nice enhancements to their CHPL. They have added specific pages for listing decertification (not the pages a developer wants to be on) and also finally adds some downloadable CSV delimited files for showing all certified products (under the Resources tab). Previously, you could only get the full list via a XML file which was not easy for human reading, and this is a much improved . Their list serv notification is copied below. NEW Certified Heal