Wednesday, June 8, 2016

ONC decides standards, specifications for API

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT has released a challenge to industry seeking application programming interface (API) solutions that will enable clients to protectively and electronically authorize the movement of their health information to destinations they opt.


In accordance to Caroline Coy, a HIT program analyst in ONC’s Office of Standards and Technology, one of the aims of the Move Health Data Forward Challenge is to assist to fill important gaps in health data exchange that are having a negative effect on sufferers.


 “One in 3 individuals who have observed a healthcare contributor in the last year experience gaps in data exchange,” Coy stated during a June 7 webinar on the challenge. “These involve: having to bring an X-ray, MRI, or other kind of test result with them to their appointment; waiting for test outcomes longer than they thought was affordable; having to redo a test or process because the previous test results were not present electronically; having to give their medical history again because their chart can’t be discovered; and having to tell their healthcare contributor about their medical history because they had not got their records from another healthcare contributor.”


Coy stated that ONC has collaborated with various health IT stakeholders to establish a set of privacy and security specifications made to enable individuals to control the authorization of approach to their health information. One such initiative is the Health Relationship Trust (HEART) Working Group, an attempt that leverages RESTful health-related information sharing APIs, as well as open standards like OAuth 2.0 security profiles, OpenID Connect, and User Managed Access.


Participants in ONC’s challenge will assist to make API solutions combined with the new implementation specifications established by the HEART Working Group, in accordance to Coy.


The challenge has 3 phases, with a cumulative prize rate of $250,000 and a maximum prize value each participant of $75,000.


Phase 1, the proposal phase, will give $5,000 to as many as ten winners, deployed on submitted proposals. Those winners then will move to Phase 2—the prototype and pilot phase—in which as many as 5 finalists will be given $20,000 each based on prototypes. The information for the API and solution must be given by Phase 2 finalists.


The last 5 Phase 2 awardees will proceed to Phase 3, where $50,000 each will be given to up to 2 winners, deployed on their capability to execute their solution. This final phase will include testing the solution in “real-life” conditions.


 

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