The Sequoia Project’s Data Usability Workgroup Publishes Final Implementation Guide

VIENNA, Va., Dec. 14, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Sequoia Project, a non-profit and trusted advocate for nationwide health IT interoperability, today announced the release of the “Data Usability Implementation Guide” created by its Interoperability Matters Data Usability Workgroup. This resource offers guidance to improve the usability of data received by end users within their workflows to benefit patient care.

The final resource spans six topic categories, including:

• Data provenance and traceability of changes
• Effective use of codes
• Reducing impact of duplicates
• Data integrity and trust
• Data tagging and searchability
• Effective use of narrative for data usability

The Data Usability Implementation Guide encompasses identified priority use cases that can be readily adopted within health information exchange vendors, implementers, networks, governance frameworks and testing programs.

The Sequoia Project sought public feedback this year on a draft version, received more than 120 comments and incorporated this feedback into the final version.

“This much-needed implementation guide delivers real-world data usability recommendations for health information networks and communities to enhance the usability of the health data shared by and between providers, public health, patients and others,” said Mariann Yeager, CEO of The Sequoia Project. “Getting the guide over the finish line was the result of intense collaboration among more than 360 members of this public workgroup. The Sequoia Project appreciates their teamwork and the public feedback received from the broader healthcare and health IT community.”

The Sequoia Project’s release of the implementation guide coincides with a dedicated session on data usability and semantic interoperability during its annual meeting today. The Sequoia Project’s Didi Davis, vice president of informatics, conformance and interoperability, will lead a panel of data usability experts from HCA Healthcare, AHIMA, Health Gorilla and Epic who will share guidance for adoption in provider-to-provider health information exchange, provider-to-public health agency information exchange and healthcare entity-to-consumer information exchange.

“This data usability implementation guide can enable semantic interoperability between sending and receiving systems to more directly incorporate shared data into the workflow of a clinician and paves the way for accurate and reliable communication for the data exchanged to be more computable for clinical decision support and more actionable,” Davis said. “We thank the workgroup chairs and all the members for their time, energy and talent put toward this final draft and look forward to building on their efforts to benefit the healthcare ecosystem and communities.”

The Data Usability Workgroup, which is part of The Sequoia Project’s Interoperability Matters initiative, was launched in October 2020 to develop specific and pragmatic implementation guidance on clinical content for healthcare stakeholders. Stakeholders from all healthcare and interoperability industries participate in the workgroup to ensure that the guidance it produces is comprehensive, inclusive and practical for healthcare communities and networks.

You can access the implementation guide at https://sequoiaproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/2022-12-14-Sequoia-DUWG-IG-Version-1.pdf.

Learn more about the Data Usability Workgroup and other Interoperability Matters workgroups at https://sequoiaproject.org/interoperability-matters/.

About The Sequoia Project 
The Sequoia Project is a non-profit, 501c3, public-private collaborative chartered to advance implementation of secure, interoperable nationwide health information exchange. The Sequoia Project focuses on solving real-world interoperability challenges and brings together public and private stakeholders in forums, such as the Interoperability Matters cooperative, to overcome barriers. The Sequoia Project is the Recognized Coordinating Entity (RCE) for the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT’s Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement (TEFCA), for which it will develop, implement and maintain TEFCA’s Common Agreement component and operationalize the Qualified Health Information Network (QHIN) designation and monitoring process. For more information about The Sequoia Project and its initiatives, visit www.sequoiaproject.org. Follow The Sequoia Project on Twitter: @SequoiaProject.