Harmonizing Data Standards for Primary Care

American Academy Of Family Physicians, Leawood KS

Investigators

Abstract

[unreadable] DESCRIPTION (PROVIDED BY APPLICANT): The standards for health information technology (IT) are evolving rapidly in the U.S. and around the world without understanding of how these standards will help or hinder delivery or measurement of high quality and safe care. AHRQ has a mandated role in developing these standards, primary health care is in the eye of the storm in this movement, and this conference is a logical extension of AHRQs investments made in developing useful classifications for ambulatory care. We propose to convene a small conference on harmonizing primary care classification to engage the primary care community in the task of creating a common infrastructure that will support the interoperable primary care electronic health record. The primary aim of the conference is to assemble the expertise necessary to answer the following questions: 1. Why is it so important to have a dedicated primary care classification in the era of SNOMED? 2. What are the most important ordering principles for primary care that MUST be captured by a primary care classification (including episodes)? Why would these matter to practicing primary care physicians? 3. What elements that comprise the domain of primary care are NOT documented sufficiently to understand and improve health care? 4. Of the existing classifications, which ones are most sufficient for capturing the content of primary care and why? For research purposes? For care documentation purposes? 5. What is the status of this/these classifications in the US as classifications and data standards are established for the interoperable, personal, electronic health record? The second aim of the conference is to formulate a strategy map to cover the subsequent 12 to 18 months, to assure that the best available primary classification system(s) is (are) supported in the US by public policy and readily used in the interoperable electronic health record. This two-day conference will be co-convened by The Robert Graham Center and AHRQ. A panel of 5 experts selected by the Graham Center with AHRQ approval will author pre-conference papers addressing each of a series of questions about primary care classifications with strong bibliographies as stimulus for discussion. Experts from NLM, CDC, NCVHS, SNOMED, NHIT Center, IT vendors and international primary care classification groups will use presentations and panel discussions to address what each sees as biggest problem in harmonizing primary care classification, what the benefits of having a standard primary care classification are, how to develop such a standard that is interoperable with other clinical classification standards. The second day would focus on developing a strategy map for developing and testing a standard primary care classification. Public Health Relevance Allowing primary care physicians to use a classification system specifically tailored to primary care and relevant to the Epidemiology of disease that presents there, has much better potential for improving public health than current classifications. This conference will specifically consider how primary care data, captured in a relevant classification scheme, can be analyzed to monitor and provide information about the health of the public and of communities. [unreadable] [unreadable] [unreadable] [unreadable]