On January 30, 2015, the HHS Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) released a draft “Roadmap” to promote safe and secure exchange and use of electronic health information. The document “Connecting Health and Care for the Nation: A Shared Nationwide Interoperability Roadmap Version 1.0,” focuses on actions intended to reach the ambitious goal of enabling a majority of individuals and providers to send, receive, find, and use a common set of electronic clinical information at the nationwide level by the end of 2017. To that end, the report focuses on: (1) establishing a coordinated governance framework and process for nationwide health IT interoperability; (2) improving technical standards and implementation guidance for sharing and using a common clinical data set; (3) enhancing incentives for sharing electronic health information according to common technical standards; and (4) clarifying privacy and security requirements that enable interoperability. Comments on the draft Roadmap document will be accepted until April 3, 2015.

ONC also released a draft of the 2015 Interoperability Standards Advisory, containing an initial version of what ONC currently considers to be the best available standards and implementation specifications for many clinical health data interoperability purposes. The public comment period for the Standards Advisory closes May 1, 2015.