“The United States Core Data for Interoperability (USCDI) is a standardized set of health data classes and constituent data elements for nationwide, interoperable health information exchange. The USCDI establishes a baseline set of data that can be commonly exchanged across care settings for a wide range of uses. The USCDI version 1 (USCDI v1) was adopted as a standard in the ONC Cures Act Final Rule published May 1, 2020. The standard was included as a required part of certain certification criteria in the 2015 Edition Cures Update and is also referenced in thecontext of information blocking.”
“The USCDI’s impact is not limited to just health IT products certified under the ONC Health IT Certification Program. The USCDI is also used to align interoperability requirements and national priorities for health IT and health care broadly across industry initiatives. In fact, CMS and other federal, state, local, and tribal partners reference the USCDI for a range of health information exchange purposes.”
“USCDI Expansion
ONC has established a predictable, transparent, and collaborative expansion process for USCDI based on public evaluation of previous versions and submissions by health IT stakeholders, including the Health Information Technology Advisory Committee’s USCDI Task Force.”
“During the submission process, which ended in September 2021, ONC received several hundred submissions through the ONC New Data Element and Class (ONDEC) system. These included comments on data elements from previous cycles, as well as newly proposed data elements. Each submitted data element was then classified into one of three levels (Comment, Level 1, or Level 2) based on the overall value, maturity, breadth of applicability to health data users, and any known challenges to implementation.”
“ONC evaluated all Level 2 data elements to determine if they met ONC priorities, outlined in Standards Bulletin 2021-3,for including data elements in future versions of USCDI. The criteria include:
- Created only minimal developmental burden on standards organizations, health IT developers, and implementing facilities and providers,
- Met additional needs of USCDI to address areas not previously represented,
- Addressed areas of health data that could reduce inequity and disparities in health care,
- Addressed areas of health data that could improve care delivery to underserved populations,
- Addressed certain public health data requirements for reporting, investigation, and emergency response.”
“Based on our overall assessment of these level 2 data elements, we identified a set of data classes and elements for the Draft USCDI v3, which is set forth on the following pages…” Read the full draft here.
Source: United States Core Data for Interoperability (USCDI) Draft Version 3 – January 2022. Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology.
