HL7 launches Blue Button CCD tool

The interoperability group Health Level Seven International (HL7) has released a continuity of care document tool for the Blue Button app that converts existing CCDs into Blue Button ASCII text format. A lot of electronic health record systems are already using CCD programs, and HL7’s tool generates Blue Button ASCII downloads without using a separate utility, said HL7 CTO John Quinn.

The CCD tool is coming as more health organizations and patients use Blue Button apps to manage helathcare records. Centerstone, a national community-based behavioral health network, is going to use the HL7 CCD tool, along with Hello Health, a New York-based provider of EHRs, PHRs and physician practice management systems.

Linda Grove-Paul, director of substance abuse and forensic services at Centerstone of Indiana, said the Blue Button and CCD apps are helping the network improve and track coordination, giving care managers and clinicians “features which would have been too costly and complex to acquire without the tool.”...