[{"innerBlocks":[],"name":"core\/freeform","postId":3653,"blockType":{"name":"core\/freeform","keywords":[],"attributes":{"content":{"type":"string","source":"raw"},"lock":{"type":"object"}},"providesContext":[],"usesContext":[],"selectors":[],"supports":{"className":false,"customClassName":false,"reusable":false},"styles":[],"variations":[],"apiVersion":3,"title":"Classic","description":"Use the classic WordPress editor.","category":"text"},"originalContent":"A project at Harvard Medical School funded by the National Institutes of Health is leveraging HL7\u2019s emerging Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR) standard and OAuth 2.0 security profiles to enable individuals to access their health data and share it with researchers.

Using standards to share health information technology and putting people at the center of deciding when and how data should flow is the goal of Sync for Science (S4S), which is being coordinated by Harvard Medical School\u2019s Department of Biomedical Informatics, NIH and the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT.

Critical to this effort is the participation of major electronic health record vendors, including Allscripts, Cerner, eClinicalWorks, Epic and others, who are piloting the use of open, standardized applications to give individuals the ability to easily and securely contribute their data to research studies.

\u201cThe basic idea of this is to provide a technology platform where patients choose which apps to share their data with,\u201d Josh Mandel, MD, research scientist in the Harvard Medical School\u2019s Department of Biomedical Informatics, told a HIMSS17 pre-conference symposium in Orlando on Sunday.

Mandel, who is in charge of technical coordination for the project, emphasized that S4S is about sharing EHRs in an easy, automated, and secure way with research studies \u201cin the same form that they\u2019re used to actually take care of a patient.\u201d

In particular, he noted that as part of NIH\u2019s Precision Medicine Initiative (PMI) the agency is looking to recruit 1 million or more Americans to participate in a national cohort and contribute their health information. Called the All of Us <\/i>research program, the information gathered from volunteers will form the basis of a data set that researchers will use to identify better ways to prevent and treat diseases that are based on individual health, environment, and lifestyle.

\u201cAbout two-thirds (of participants) will come from hospitals that are involved, and about one-third will come in as what we call direct volunteers,\u201d according to Mandel. \u201cWe want to make it as easy as we can for those people to share their electronic health record data.\u201d

Also See<\/b>: PMI cohort will require data management on a massive scale<\/a>

Among the core values guiding the development and implementation of PMI\u2019s All of Us <\/i>cohort are that participants have access to their information, that the data be accessed broadly for research purposes, and that security and privacy will be of highest importance. By connecting a research app to their electronic health data, S4S will help ensure patients\u2019 rights to access under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, contends Mandel.

\u201cWe\u2019re building electronic tools to help them make that request in a simple web-based fashion and have the entire process be automated end-to-end\u2014so, once a patient puts in that request, the provider system can share the data with an app of the patient\u2019s choice quickly and automatically,\u201d he added. \u201cThe All of Us <\/i>program is going to launch an app that can ask for data in this way.\u201d However, at the same time, Mandel made the case that \u201cany research study can use these protocols\u2026for any app that wants to ask for data in this way.\u201d

In the final Meaningful Use Stage 3 rule, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services required certified EHR technology to provide an application programming interface through which patient information can be viewed, downloaded, and transmitted to a third party. In addition, APIs are part of ONC\u2019s 2015 Edition of Health IT Certification Criteria, which requires certified EHRs to demonstrate the ability to provide a patient-facing app access to the Common Clinical Data Set via an API.

\u201cWe want to take this technology, which is really part of our Meaningful Use and EHR certification landscape, and build on top of it,\u201d said Mandel. \u201cWe use a set of standards\u2014FHIR and OAuth 2.0 (the security standard for approving access)\u2014to ask for access to the data in a variety of these provider systems\u2026FHIR is a standard for sharing clinical data in a structured way, which is what we use for allergies, labs, medications, and other structured data.\u201d

The initial focus of S4S is on a core data set that includes a list of elements including demographics, lab results, medications, problem lists, and vital signs, as defined in ONC\u2019s Common Clinical Data Set. Mandel noted that the CCDS is \u201cnot everything\u201d but \u201cit\u2019s a pretty good starting point for researchers and for consumer health apps.\u201d He said future phases of S4S will support methods for sharing other data elements.","saveContent":"A project at Harvard Medical School funded by the National Institutes of Health is leveraging HL7\u2019s emerging Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR) standard and OAuth 2.0 security profiles to enable individuals to access their health data and share it with researchers.

Using standards to share health information technology and putting people at the center of deciding when and how data should flow is the goal of Sync for Science (S4S), which is being coordinated by Harvard Medical School\u2019s Department of Biomedical Informatics, NIH and the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT.

Critical to this effort is the participation of major electronic health record vendors, including Allscripts, Cerner, eClinicalWorks, Epic and others, who are piloting the use of open, standardized applications to give individuals the ability to easily and securely contribute their data to research studies.

\u201cThe basic idea of this is to provide a technology platform where patients choose which apps to share their data with,\u201d Josh Mandel, MD, research scientist in the Harvard Medical School\u2019s Department of Biomedical Informatics, told a HIMSS17 pre-conference symposium in Orlando on Sunday.

Mandel, who is in charge of technical coordination for the project, emphasized that S4S is about sharing EHRs in an easy, automated, and secure way with research studies \u201cin the same form that they\u2019re used to actually take care of a patient.\u201d

In particular, he noted that as part of NIH\u2019s Precision Medicine Initiative (PMI) the agency is looking to recruit 1 million or more Americans to participate in a national cohort and contribute their health information. Called the All of Us <\/i>research program, the information gathered from volunteers will form the basis of a data set that researchers will use to identify better ways to prevent and treat diseases that are based on individual health, environment, and lifestyle.

\u201cAbout two-thirds (of participants) will come from hospitals that are involved, and about one-third will come in as what we call direct volunteers,\u201d according to Mandel. \u201cWe want to make it as easy as we can for those people to share their electronic health record data.\u201d

Also See<\/b>: PMI cohort will require data management on a massive scale<\/a>

Among the core values guiding the development and implementation of PMI\u2019s All of Us <\/i>cohort are that participants have access to their information, that the data be accessed broadly for research purposes, and that security and privacy will be of highest importance. By connecting a research app to their electronic health data, S4S will help ensure patients\u2019 rights to access under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, contends Mandel.

\u201cWe\u2019re building electronic tools to help them make that request in a simple web-based fashion and have the entire process be automated end-to-end\u2014so, once a patient puts in that request, the provider system can share the data with an app of the patient\u2019s choice quickly and automatically,\u201d he added. \u201cThe All of Us <\/i>program is going to launch an app that can ask for data in this way.\u201d However, at the same time, Mandel made the case that \u201cany research study can use these protocols\u2026for any app that wants to ask for data in this way.\u201d

In the final Meaningful Use Stage 3 rule, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services required certified EHR technology to provide an application programming interface through which patient information can be viewed, downloaded, and transmitted to a third party. In addition, APIs are part of ONC\u2019s 2015 Edition of Health IT Certification Criteria, which requires certified EHRs to demonstrate the ability to provide a patient-facing app access to the Common Clinical Data Set via an API.

\u201cWe want to take this technology, which is really part of our Meaningful Use and EHR certification landscape, and build on top of it,\u201d said Mandel. \u201cWe use a set of standards\u2014FHIR and OAuth 2.0 (the security standard for approving access)\u2014to ask for access to the data in a variety of these provider systems\u2026FHIR is a standard for sharing clinical data in a structured way, which is what we use for allergies, labs, medications, and other structured data.\u201d

The initial focus of S4S is on a core data set that includes a list of elements including demographics, lab results, medications, problem lists, and vital signs, as defined in ONC\u2019s Common Clinical Data Set. Mandel noted that the CCDS is \u201cnot everything\u201d but \u201cit\u2019s a pretty good starting point for researchers and for consumer health apps.\u201d He said future phases of S4S will support methods for sharing other data elements.","order":0,"get_parent":{},"attributes":[],"attributesType":{"content":{"type":"string","source":"raw"},"lock":{"type":"object"}},"dynamicContent":""}]

Apps to enable patients to access their EHRs, share with researchers

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