Health Gorilla is pleased to announce that we have joined The Sequoia Project’s Data Usability Taking Root Initiative, a cross-industry community of practice, at the Implementer level.
Co-sponsored by the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA), the initiative will leverage existing standards to address pain points from end users on the frontline to improve the completeness and usability of data.
“It makes total sense for us to join the Taking Root movement and commit to implementing data usability guidance,” says Health Gorilla Chief Medical Officer Steven Lane, MD, MPH. “The healthcare industry makes critical decisions every day based on shared clinical data. The time is now.”
Beginning with the quality of clinical data shared between healthcare providers, Taking Root participants commit to implementing data usability guidance published by The Sequoia Project Interoperability Matters Data Usability Workgroup that targets improvements necessary to enable semantic interoperability of health information.
“Over three years, more than 260 health organizations worked together through The Sequoia Project to develop practical guidance to make health data more useful for healthcare providers, health IT vendors, public health, health information exchanges, and patients,” Mariann Yeager, CEO of The Sequoia Project, said in a press release. “It’s time to put this guidance into action for the public good.”
There are three ways organizations can get involved:
- Supporters can amplify the importance of data usability and participate in the further development of guidance.
- Implementers can participate in a community of practice while operationalizing data usability guidance.
- Sponsors can invest in the growth of the movement.
Organizations that commit to be an implementor or sponsor by August 16 will be invited to the members-only steering committee of the Data Usability Taking Root movement September 16 in Washington, D.C. For information or to sign up, go to sequoiaproject.org/data-usability-taking-root-movement/.
The Sequoia Project is a non-profit and trusted advocate for nationwide health IT interoperability. In 2019, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) awarded Sequoia the contract to serve as the Recognized Coordinating Entity (RCE) for the Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement (TEFCA). The RCE is collaborating with ONC to designate and monitor Qualified Health Information Networks (QHIN). Health Gorilla is one of six entities named in February as approved for onboarding as a QHIN and is currently in the testing phase.
