ONC released their Draft FHIR Action Plan and requested comments by 11/25/24. The FHIR Action Plan is primary a list of specifications by area and their relative maturity, with general advice about which Implementation Guide to use for which use case. It is limited to FHIR use cases in use or in consideration for the next 2 years. It does not go into detail about what federal agencies are using or plan to use.
After internal review, APHL submitted comments this week on the Plan. APHL is committed to representing our members and the interests of the public health laboratory community on policy proposals such as this FHIR Action Plan. Our comments stressed the complexity of public health reporting and urged ONC to consider the persistence of legacy reporting in their recommendations; in some instances, we noted that a significant portion of public health partners are relying on alternate standards or exchange methods rather than what is identified in the Plan.
Link to the FHIR Action Plan: About the Draft Federal FHIR® Action Plan | Interoperability Standards Platform (ISP).
Link to APHL's comments: https://aphlinformatics.atlassian.net/wiki/external/OTNjNzAxN2YwYTlhNDhkNmJlYWU1OWJiZmY1MzAwNmY
If you'd like to get involved with APHL Informatics policy work, please reach out to me.
Melanie Kourbage (she/her)
Lead Specialist, Informatics
P +1 240.638.2056
melanie.kourbage@aphl.org | www.aphl.org
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Melanie Kourbage
Association of Public Health Laboratories
Bethesda MD
(240) 485-2747
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