Healthcare Directories Workshop Focuses on Secure Validation of Clinician Data

For patients, healthcare providers, and health plans (among other stakeholders) who need trustworthy, actionable information, the advantages of validated “healthcare directories” are wide ranging and will play an increasing part in our nation’s interoperability infrastructure. Healthcare directories play a critical role in enabling identification of individual providers and provider organizations, as well as characteristics about them, their relationships, and the means by which to access and exchange health information among them electronically. Healthcare directories support a variety of use cases, including: electronic endpoint discovery, referrals and transitions of care, health plan enrollment, provider selection, and provider credentialing and privileging.

ONC convened a workshop June 13-14 for stakeholders interested in healthcare directories. This year’s event (a follow-up to one held in 2016) served as an opportunity to reflect on progress and dive deeper into what’s still needed to enhance interoperability in the years ahead. Since our last workshop, the community at large has worked within Health Level 7 (HL7®) to develop a Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR®)-based standard called the Validated Healthcare Directory Implementation Guide (VhDir IG). This standard is capable of supporting a broad range of directory uses to address clinician burden, redundant processes, and quality improvement.