Investments
Enabling the digital transformation of the healthcare system requires strategic investments in programs, policies, and technology. Learn about ASTP/ONC’s investments and how they advance HHS’ technology strategy and policy in health care.
Inferno
Inferno Framework is a rigorous and extensible testing development framework for HL7® FHIR® standard and beyond. ASTP/ONC hosts a version of Inferno to purposes of testing for the ONC Health IT Certification Program and to support community-driven health IT standards development projects.
Lantern
Lantern is an open source tool and dashboard that monitors fielded patient-facing FHIR API endpoints to provide analytics about their conformance, performance, and responsiveness. These analytics give the public and, especially patients, app developers, and other API users, insights into the adoption and availability of FHIR APIs across U.S. healthcare providers.
HL7
Health Level Seven (HL7) is a not-for-profit, ANSI-accredited standards developing organization dedicated to providing a comprehensive framework and related standards for the exchange, integration, sharing and retrieval of electronic health information that supports clinical practice and the management, delivery and evaluation of health services. ASTP/ONC has provided financial support to accelerate the standards development timeline.
Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise (IHE)
Under this cooperative agreement, ASTP/ONC and Integrating the Health Enterprise (IHE) USA are collaborating to accelerate the creation of new and updated IHE profiles to support the use of the HL7 FHIR (Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources) standard. This agreement also strengthens and streamline cross-organizational collaboration efforts between standards developing organizations (SDO), interoperability test tool developers, FHIR champions and other vital stakeholders.
LEAP in Health IT
Leading Edge Acceleration Projects (LEAP) in Health IT program funds projects that help advance the next generation of health IT development and also address emerging challenges that inhibit the development, use, and advancement of interoperable health IT. Recent projects include aligning social determinants of health with clinical care, and health IT tools to aggregate and compare EHR data across diverse healthcare settings for research purposes.
LOINC with Regenstrief
ASTP/ONC’s cooperative agreement with Regenstrief will enhance the LOINC® standard to support health IT interoperability. Among key objectives, the project advances the production deployment of FHIR-based terminology services for LOINC, update tools maintained by Regenstrief for LOINC implementers, and support LOINC content developers as they develop new content that supports the USCDI. Funding also seeks to accelerate and expand LOINC development to support interoperable public health reporting.
National Council for Prescription Drug Programs
National Council for Prescription Drug Programs (NCPDP) formally took over the stewardship of the electronic prescribing testing tool approved for use under the ONC Health IT Certification Program. As of August 2018, NCPDP supports and maintains the ONC-approved testing tool used to test and provide assurance that health IT is conformant to the ONC-required SCRIPT v10.6 standard.
Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement
Required by the Cures Act, the Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement (TEFCA) seeks to create a nationwide policy and infrastructure backbone to ease information sharing across health information networks of electronic health records (EHRs) and other health IT systems.
More Investments
Health IT Research & Analysis
ASTP/ONC’s analysis, reports, and datasets of health IT data.
Electronic Clinical Quality Improvement (eCQI) Resource Center
The one-stop shop for stakeholders engaged in quality measurement to improve care by measuring how patients are treated, and how well those patients do afterward.
Get it Check it Use it
You have a right to your health records, and it can help you take control of your health, well-being, and safety.
Health IT Playbook
An easy-to-navigate resource that clinicians can use to implement and use health IT in their practice
Interoperability Standards Advisory (ISA)
ASTP/ONC’s process to coordinate the identification, assessment, and determination of “recognized” interoperability standards and implementation specifications for health IT interoperability.
Patient Engagement Playbook
A resource guide for clinicians, practice staff, hospital staff, and other innovators with tips and best practices for leveraging health IT.
Patient-Centered Outcomes Research (PCOR)
ASTP/ONC projects that inform policy, standards, and services specific to the adoption and implementation of a patient-centered outcomes research data infrastructure.
Precision Medicine
A nationwide initiative focused on bringing a tailored approach to health care by incorporating people’s unique characteristics including environment, lifestyle, and biology into treatments and prevention strategies.
Project US@
Project US@ works to bring a unified specification for address in health care.
SAFER Guide
The SAFER Guides consist of eight guides to enable healthcare organizations address EHR safety in a variety of areas.
USCDI+
The USCDI+ Initiative supports the identification and establishment of domain or program-specific data element lists that operate as extensions to the existing United States Core Data for Interoperability (USCDI).
Past Investments
ONC HITECH Programs
ASTP/ONC supports nationwide implementation of health IT, partially through programs like the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH). HITECH Program targeted a range of issues from promoting health IT excellence in communities to fostering collaboration among federal agencies.
Patient Unified Lookup System for Emergencies (PULSE)
A public health initiative to strengthen and enable secure and timely access to vital health information during disasters to ensure patients can continue to receive care when and where they need it.
SHARP
An innovation program that supported innovative research and addressed well-documented problems in 4 areas that impeded the adoption and use of health IT.
ASTP/ONC Challenges
ASTP/ONC began running challenges in 2011 under the America COMPETES Reauthorization Act, and executed over 30 challenges between 2011 and 2018.
Testing & Utilities
The ONC Tech Lab’s Testing and Utilities page supports a collaborative work environment for health IT developers and providers to test tools, test their health IT functionality in the field, and coordinate with leading industry experts on the development of additional testing resources and testing events.