ACT.md sponsoring the Argonaut Project, led by ACT.md Advisor John Halamka
Earlier this year, ACT.md joined a group of highly motivated healthcare leaders and committed to two things: 1) make data more open, and 2) use it to keep people healthy. We will do this through an effort called “the Argonaut Project,” an initiative focused on accelerating development of FHIR (Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources).
Per the Health Level Seven International (HL7) organization, FHIR is a next-generation standards framework. FHIR combines the best features of HL7’s Version 2, Version 3 and CDA® product lines with the latest web standards for easy implementation. Experts agree with the HL7 organization that FHIR is a “significant advance”.
Like ACT.md, FHIR is a “RESTful” Application Programming Interface (API)—a more modern software architectural style compared to the traditional SOAP that is used in many industries outside of healthcare. According to WIRED,
Web APIs, or more specifically REST APIs, are key for connecting devices to the Internet. Initially driven by human-held mobile devices and modern dynamic web-user interfaces, lightweight and developer-friendly REST APIs are just what the doctor ordered.
The ultimate goals:
Data liquidity like we have in other facets of our lives
Simplified complex clinical documents
Fast, easy-to-implement framework
Easier healthcare data exchange
The Argonaut Project
ACT.md joined the Argonaut Project, which proposes to replace complex healthcare-specific document and messaging standards with the more universal and, essentially, free equivalents taken from the Internet. It was one of our advisors, John Halamka, who announced the Argonaut Project with the proposal to use an expansion of the rapidly emerging FHIR data-exchange standard to replace the Consolidated Clinical Document Architecture (CCDA)—the complex (some would say overly complex) set of XML-formatted clinical documents worked out over a number of years by the HL7 standards body (FHIR is also part of HL7).
Quoting a recent interview conducted by Dr. Mark Braunstein, Dr. John Halamka outlined the two key goals of the Argonaut Project:
“Provide a more facile, easier to implement means of sharing key groups of clinical data (e.g. documents) that are required in common clinical scenarios. CDA is a healthcare-specific approach to creating electronic documents. FHIR is taking advantage of JSON (or XML) objects as a means of packaging what are essentially sections of documents. The idea now is to go all the way and use sets of FHIR JSON objects in place of complex CDA documents."
“Replace healthcare-specific messaging standards with a new FHIR REST GET API that could be used by organizations to request the equivalent of the CCD. The result would be a set of FHIRs that, in total, provide the same information that is in the current CCD specification.”
Per Halamka, Argonaut does not compete with other efforts—rather, it’s a complementary, focused project. Three specific deliverables are planned to come in 2015:
FHIR Data Query Profiles
FHIR Document Query Profile
Security Implementation Guide
FHIR would be invaluable for transitions in care
Transitions in care are when a patient moves from one healthcare setting to another, whether that’s going home or seeing other health care providers. Sharing information during a transition in care is critical to the patient’s safety and the provider’s efficiency in making decisions.
Currently, organizations try to share information via an XML-formatted Continuity of Care Document (CCD). Unfortunately, it’s a very complex document and standard that varies widely. Therefore, this is the initial area of focus for FHIR.
SMART on FHIR
Next week I will be meeting with healthcare leaders who are pursuing collaboration through the SMART interoperability platform led by my ACT.md co-founders, Dr. Ken Mandl and Dr. Isaac Kohane.
