Leveraging The S&I Framework To Improve Collaborative Care

With the concept of collaborative care now at the forefront of the healthcare industry, organizations are working to improve the functionality and interoperability of health IT systems. To facilitate the meaningful exchange of clinical and financial information, however, it is essential for various technologies within and among organizations to effectively communicate. Standards are essential.

In order to expedite the kind of communication necessary to support collaborative care, the Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) launched the Standards and Interoperability Framework (S&I Framework). The S&I Framework is a community of stakeholders across the healthcare spectrum working to develop health IT standards to promote functional information exchanges. The open forum leverages a series of initiatives based on clinical use cases to create the standards and tests the standards with pilot programs.

Without key stakeholder input and participation, various processes or nuances within them are in danger of being overlooked...