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ONC releases finalized nationwide interoperability roadmap

By: Nextech | October 13th, 2015

ONC releases finalized nationwide interoperability roadmap Blog Feature

As EHR technology progresses, a greater emphasis has been placed on nationwide interoperability between vendors in order to take full advantage of patients' electronic health information.

Last week, ONC released its final interoperability report, "Connecting Health and Care for the Nation: A Shared Nationwide Interoperability Roadmap."

interoperability

In the roadmap, ONC laid out three high-level goals for health IT interoperability to help ensure they achieve a "learning health system by 2024. 

The three goals are:

  • 2015-2017 -- Send, receive, find and use priority data domains to improve health care quality and outcomes.
  • 2018-2020 -- Expand data sources and users in the interoperable health IT ecosystem to improve health and lower costs.
  • 2021-2024 -- Achieve nationwide interoperability to enable a learning health system, with the person at the center of a system that can continuously improve care, public health, and science through real-time data.

ONC reports EHR adoption has seen rapid increase in the last five years, but also acknowledges that the influx of EHR adoption hasn't translated into a consistent flow of shared information between providers. As of 2013, only 14 percent of ambulatory providers shared electronic health information with providers outside of their organization.

Achieving nationwide interoperability won't be possible without the participation of ambulatory practices. Through various efforts like the 21st Century Cures Act and a plea from CMS to report information blockers, the government is doing its best to enable both practices and health IT vendors to participate in interoperability or risk decertification.

The release of ONC's interoperability roadmap represents a shift from simply talking about interoperability to putting a plan into action and achieving true, nationwide interoperability within the next 10 years.

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