The Sequoia Project this week made available a new set of draft resources to help healthcare organizations comply with Cures Act information blocking requirements.

WHY IT MATTERS
The group is also seeking public feedback on the resources, which include what it's calling "good practices" for healthcare data sharing and information blocking compliance – and details on operational implications of the move to an expanded definition of electronic health information.

These documents, created by Sequoia's Information Blocking Compliance Workgroup, also include a further exploration of the expanded definition of EHI and related considerations, an infographic that visualizes the range of information systems and connections implicated by the expanded definition of EHI, and a set of ongoing and new policy considerations.

Feedback may be submitted online through Aug. 19 or shared via email at InteropMatters@sequoiaproject.org.

The "good practices" guide identifies approaches to compliance that span "actor" categories – providers, developers of certified health IT and health information networks – and details some responsibilities that apply to specific actors.

The resources were also developed to help with compliance of the expanded definition of electronic health information and spotlight some of the implications of the expanded EHI definition for operations.

Actors that must comply with the information blocking rules on operational steps needed to comply with the full definition of EHI that will take effect on Oct. 6, 2022.

THE LARGER TREND
The Information Blocking Compliance Workgroup put these resources together to help support healthcare stakeholders as they navigate compliance with the information blocking rules issued by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT.

The Sequoia Project has been busy recently in its capacity as ONC's recognized coordinating entity for the Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement.

ON THE RECORD
"This body of work was the result of intensive collaboration among IBWG members and we are excited to move forward with the release of these resources for public review prior to their publication in September," said Mariann Yeager, CEO of The Sequoia Project, in a statement. "Workgroup members and additional subject matter experts volunteered their considerable expertise and time to develop these deliverables and we look forward to the community's feedback."

"The IBWG represents diverse experts in the field, allowing us to take a wide array of stakeholder groups into consideration when developing these resources," added Dr. Matthew Eisenberg, associate chief medical information officer at Stanford Health Care and IBWG co-chair. "We look forward to the additional feedback from the public to further improve these resources so that the broad health IT community can better define and adopt full EHI sharing."

Mike Miliard is executive editor of Healthcare IT News.
Twitter: @MikeMiliardHITN
Email: mmiliard@himss.org
Healthcare IT News is a HIMSS publication.