More than 20 healthcare enterprises have teamed up in a new initiative for improving data sharing in value-based care arrangements using HL7 Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR).

Dubbed the Da Vinci Project, the private-sector effort aims to reduce the development and deployment of one-off solutions between partners and instead utilize HL7 FHIR technology to establish simpler sharing of health information to assist medical groups and health plans in delivering greater clinical quality, cost and care management outcomes. The team plans to achieve this with two initial test cases currently underway.

"Da Vinci is a collective initiative of concerned, diverse market leaders that includes payers, providers, HL7 and EHR vendors that understand how critical it is to put forward and employ standards that promote data exchange in real time,” Dr. Shafiq Rab, chief information officer at Rush System for Health and Rush University Medical Center, said in a statement. “These efforts will enable data to be available at the right time to the right person every time, securely.”
Hosted by HL7 International, the Da Vinci Project is run independently but collaborates with HL7 work groups to collect feedback on FHIR standards. As the global authority for health care information interoperability and standards, HL7 will ensure that implementation guides of the project are balloted through the HL7 process to become open industry standards.

Using its test cases, stakeholders of the project will work to spread interoperability throughout value-based care to guide the development and deployment of interoperable solutions on a nationwide scale.

One case involves 30-day medication reconciliation programs for reducing the incidence of adverse drug events following discharge. Da Vinci will work to create a simple workflow that allows providers to report when a 30-day medication reconciliation is done for a specific patient on a specific date.

The other revolves around coverage requirements discovery and will enable providers to request and receive information on health plan coverage requirements at the point of service.

"Value-based care promotes better patient results at lower costs, and it relies on timely data sharing between doctors and health plans," Sagran Moodley, senior vice president of UHC Clinical Data Services and Technology at UnitedHealth Group, who serves as the chair of the initiative’s steering committee, said in a statement. "The associated data-sharing capabilities support physicians in a number of ways, including enabling them to see patients' benefits in real time, improving medical record exchange and reporting, informing clinical decisions at the point of care, and helping them reduce administrative burden."

Progress on both cases has already taken place at a project meeting in April and May in Cleveland and at subsequent sessions in June in Massachusetts. In addition, project scope statement approvals were obtained in May at the May HL7 International Conference and Working Group Meeting, and initial drafts of the implementation guides have been submitted in the current September 2018 ballot cycle.

The team will present the initial implementation guides and reference implementations at the September HL7 FHIR Connectathon in Baltimore.

Founders of the project include Allscripts, Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield, Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Alabama, Blue Cross of Idaho, Cambia Health Solutions, Cerner, Cognosante, Edifecs, Epic, Health Care Service Corporation, Health Level Seven (HL7) International, HealthLX, Humana, Independence Blue Cross, Optum, Rush University Medical Center, Surescripts, UnitedHealthcare and Zeomega.

The Da Vinci Project did not respond for comment.

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