Review of New National Standards for Immunization Data Interoperability

Background:
The American Health Information Community (AHIC) issues use cases that define priorities for the selection of health information interoperability standards by the Health Information Technology Standards Panel (HITSP). In 2008, AHIC released a Use Case describing the data interoperability requirements for immunization information. The HITSP Population Perspective Technical Committee worked for the better part of a year to select from available data standards and prepare an Interoperability Specification document to guide IIS projects and health information exchanges in exchanging immunization information. Representatives from many groups, including AIRA, HL7, and IHE, worked on the development of the technical specification.

Setting:
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Population:
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Project Description:
This presentation will describe various aspects of the collaborative process and outcome of the 2008 HITSP standards harmonization process as it relates to immunization data. After a brief review of the process, the details of the interoperability specification will be discussed. The specification allows for two types of transmissions to take place: a message-based transmission based on the HL7 v2.3.1 messaging specification, and a document-based transmission based on the Continuity of Care Document (CCD). The implications of these two approaches will be discussed, as well as the issues that need to be addressed when attempting to interoperate between these strategies. Future standards harmonization plans and activities for 2009 will also be identified.

Results/Lessons Learned:
1. Participation in national standards development efforts is time consuming but essential as the impact can be significant.
2. Public health as useful experience and can contribute substantially to these activities.
3. Whether it participates or not, public health will be affected by interoperability standards that are selected, so better to be at the table than be hostage to someone else's decisions.