MEDITECH is proud to announce our commitment to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Services' Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology Cancer Moonshot initiative, presented at last week’s ONC Annual Meeting. The initiative is part of the Biden administration’s Unity Agenda and the USCDI+ for Cancer objective, organized by CancerX. It aims to standardize cancer data elements and improve health outcomes through greater accessibility to timely, meaningful, and equitable data and advanced cancer research.
The initiative — which focuses on research, clinical trials, and other use cases — will bring together EHR leaders, health systems, cancer center leaders, and other industry stakeholders to participate in workgroup meetings, where they will define the USCDI+ Cancer data elements required for submission via HL7 FHIR API. Standardizing these data elements will support the CMS Enhancing Oncology Model, which aims to improve care coordination for cancer patients.
“Better integration of health care delivery and human services is critical to strengthening “whole-person” care, advancing health equity, and improving customer experience,” said Micky Tripathi, Ph.D., National Coordinator for Health Information Technology. “ONC has focused for many years on increasing patient-centered health care interoperability, and we are eager to support the HHS Data Strategy’s vision for human services interoperability.”
Several MEDITECH Interoperability and Oncology leaders will participate in these workgroups, including Director of Development for Interoperability Chris Kundra, Manager of Development for Interoperability Jason Vogt, Senior Supervisor of Development for Interoperability Josh Hemmesch, and Manager of Oncology Development Nate Mettille. The team is already working closely with the ONC to champion the adoption of HL7 FHIR in national standards to support discrete data exchange.
“Given the complexity of cancer care and the vast disparities between how each patient responds to treatment, the ability to share vital patient information and cancer research between disparate healthcare systems and EHRs can be critical to a patient’s survival,” says Vogt. “We commend the HHS and ONC for bringing key stakeholders together to improve patient outcomes and look forward to our participation in this workgroup.”
MEDITECH’s President and CEO, Michelle O’Connor, met with key members of the Biden administration last week to discuss this initiative and to sign off on MEDITECH’s commitment.
“Interoperability has long been a focal point for MEDITECH, and we look forward to collaborating with our peers across the industry to standardize our approach to cancer care,” adds O’Connor. “I am incredibly proud of Chris, Jason, Josh, and Nate for championing this topic.”
You can learn more about the HHS Cancer Moonshot initiative and Data Strategy in their recent press release.
