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Messaging Guide

The HL7 messaging standard, version two that was implemented by most vendors and public health agencies did not resolve all systems’ interoperability problems. Design and tool implementation for automated machine-testing messages may resolve many of those problems. This task also has critical importance for rapid deployment of electronic public health systems.

 

Objective

This document describes the Public Health Information Network efforts on the development of the messaging quality framework, a flexible framework of services and utilities designed to assist public health partners with preparing and communicating quality, standard electronic messages.

 

Referenced File
Submitted by hparton on

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services administers federal incentive programs for eligible hospitals (EHs), critical access hospitals (CAHs), eligible providers (EPs), and eligible clinicians (ECs) that have adopted and use certified electronic health record technology (CEHRT). The transmission of syndromic surveillance messages from health care providers to a public health agency using CEHRT is one of the measures available to incentive program participants.

Submitted by ctong on

Syndromic surveillance seeks to systematically leverage health-related data in near "real-time" to understand the health of communities at the local, state, and federal level. The product of this process provides statistical insight on disease trends and healthcare utilization behaviors at the community level which can be used to support essential surveillance functions in governmental public health authorities (PHAs). Syndromic surveillance is particularly useful in supporting public health situational awareness, emergency response management, and outbreak recognition and characterization. Patient encounter data from healthcare settings are a critical inputs for syndromic surveillance; such clinical data provided by hospitals and urgent care centers to PHAs are authorized applicable local and state laws. The capture, transformation, and messaging of these data in a standardized and systematic manner is critical to this entire enterprise. In August 2015, a collaborative effort was initiated between the CDC, ISDS, the Syndromic Surveillance Community, ONC and NIST to update the national electronic messaging standard which enables disparate healthcare systems to capture, structure, and transmit administrative and clinical data for public health surveillance and response. The PHIN Messaging Guide for Syndromic Surveillance -Release 2.0 (2015) provided an HL7 messaging and content reference standard for national, syndromic surveillance electronic health record technology certification as well as a basis for local and state syndromic surveillance messaging implementation guides. This standard was further amended with the release of the PHIN Messaging Guide for Syndromic Surveillance - Release 2.0, Erratum (2015) and the HL7 Version 2.5.1 PHIN Messaging Guide for Syndromic Surveillance- Release 2.0, NIST Clarifications and Validation Guidelines, Version 1.5 (2016). ISDS is now engaged in a process, supported by a CDC Cooperative Agreement, to formally revise the existing guide and generate an HL7 V 2.5.1 Implementation Guide (IG) for Syndromic Surveillance v2.5 for HL7 balloting in 2018. This roundtable will provide a forum to present and discuss the HL7 Balloting process and the outstanding activities in which the Syndromic Surveillance community must participate during the coming months for this activity to be successful.

Objective:

To provide a forum to engage key stakeholders to discuss the process for updating and revising the Implementation Guide (IG) for Syndromic Surveillance (formerly the PHIN Message Guide for Syndromic Surveillance) and underscore the critically of community and stakeholder involvement as the Implementation Guide is vetted through the formal Health Level Seven (Hl7) balloting process in 2018.

Submitted by elamb on

In 2011, the CDC released the PHIN Implementation Guide (IG) for Syndromic Surveillance v.1 under the Public Health Information Network. In the intervening years, new technological advancements, EHR capabilities as well as epidemiological and Meaningful Use requirements have led to the periodic update and revision of the IG through informal and semi-structured solicitation and collection of comments from across public health, governmental, academic, and EHR vendor stakeholders. Following the IG v.2.0 release in 2015, CDC initiated a multi-year endeavor to update the IG in a more systematic manner and released further updates via an Erratum and a technical document developed with NIST to clarify validation policies and testing parameters. These documents were consolidated into the Message Guide v.2.1 release and used to inform the development of the NIST Syndromic Surveillance Test Suite (http://hl7v2-ss-r2-testing.nist.gov/ss-r2/#/home), Validation Test Cases, and develop a new rules-based IG built using NIST’s Implementation Guide Authoring and Management Tool (IGAMT). As part of a Cooperative Agreement initiated in 2017, CDC and ISDS built upon prior activities and renew efforts in engaging the Syndromic Surveillance Community of Practice for comment on the IG with the goal of having the final product to become an "HL7 V 2.5.1 Implementation Guide for Syndromic Surveillance Standard for Trial Use" following a formal HL7 balloting process in 2018.

Objective:

To describe the process to update the Implementation Guide (IG) for Syndromic Surveillance via community and stakeholder engagement and highlight significant modifications as the IG is vetted through the formal HL7 balloting process.

Submitted by elamb on
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