Clinical data captured in electronic health records (EHR) for patient health care could be used for chronic disease surveillance, helping to inform and prioritize interventions at a state or community level. While there has been significant progress in the collection of clinical information such as immunizations for public health purposes, greater attention could be paid to the collection of data on chronic illness. Obesity is a chronic disease that affects over a third of the US adult population1 , making it an important public health concern. Both HL7 v.2.5.12 and Clinical Document Architecture (CDA) messages3 can be used to facilitate the collection of HW EHR data. These standards include anthropometric and demographic information along with the option to transmit behavioral, continuity of care, community resource identification and care plan information. We worked with vendors participating in the Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise initiative (IHE) in developing, testing and showcasing scenarios to facilitate system development, increase the visibility of HW standards and demonstrate potential usages of obesity-related information.
Objective
To demonstrate the feasibility of using healthy weight (HW) IT standards in public health surveillance through the collection and visualization of patient height, weight and behavioral data.