Lab Results Interfaces Pilots Workgroup

							Lab Results Interfaces Pilots Workgroup
     Today, most lab reports results are not typically sent electronically from the Lab Information System (LIS) to
the Electronic Health Record (EHR), and when they are sent electronically, they are not sent in a standardized,
broadly-adopted, structured format. On the other hand, electronic reporting of standardized structured lab
results is critical to national objectives of improved care, quality measurement, and decision support – a fact
reflected in upcoming Meaningful Use Stage 2 requirements
(http://healthit.hhs.gov/media/faca/MU_RFC%20_2011-01-12_final.pdf).
    To address this critical gap, the S&I Framework Lab Results Interfaces (LRI) initiative will soon complete a draft
Implementation Guide (IG), “Ambulatory Laboratory Results Reporting Implementation Guide for LRI, Release 1,”
which enables lab reporting to ambulatory primary care organizations. This IG builds upon existing HL7 2.5.1-
balloted Lab Results IGs and is likely to be recommended for incorporation into Meaningful Use Stage 2.
    The new LRI IG incorporates several standards – including the appropriate use of LOINC, OIDs, SNOMED CT,
and UCUM – to address outstanding standardization issues in lab results reporting today. To ensure that the
guide is both deployment-ready and implementer-friendly prior to widespread adoption, the LRI initiative is
establishing the LRI Pilots Workgroup (LRI Pilots WG). This WG will demonstrate and improve the
implementation-readiness of the LRI IG in a production (or near-production) environment.
    This Wiki contains background on the LRI Initiative:
http://wiki.siframework.org/Lab+Results+Interface+%28LRI%29+Initiative.
    The overall LRI strategy is moving toward consensus. You can learn more here:
http://wiki.siframework.org/LRI+Strategy+and+Consensus+Statement.



Benefits of being an LRI pilot participant
    The S&I Steering Team is seeking broad participation – by HIT vendors, labs, providers and other interested
parties – in LRI pilots. LRI pilot participants could realize several benefits, including but not limited to:

           Ability to leverage initiative resources. Build on the expertise, tools and any open-source code
            developed through the LRI Pilots WG to create a better, faster, and higher quality implementation. In
            addition, through the LRI Validation Suite WG, ONC and NIST are partnering to develop testing tools
            capable of validating whether HL7 v2 lab results messages comply with the new LRI specifications.
            Pilot participants can leverage these tools while executing LRI pilots.
           Demonstrate compliance, increase efficiency of development and maintenance. Use the LRI IG and
            consider using the planned LRI Validation Suite, which was designed using computational
           implementation specifications. These specifications were harmonized with a broad consortium of
           Standards Development Organizations (SDOs).
          Contribute to the community. Each pilot has a high profile among Government agencies, ONC
           grantees, and within the community of volunteers that support the Nationwide Health Information
           Network.
          Be recognized as an early adopter. Use participation in this important national initiative to heighten
           your organization’s name recognition.

           Note: Pilot organizations might choose to demonstrate other S&I Initiatives in tandem or separately,
           such as:
            Provider Directories to enable certificate and endpoint address discovery.
            Certificate Interoperability management.
            Transitions of Care (ToC).


LRI Pilots – How to Get Started

Participate in the S&I Framework as volunteers: (http://wiki.siframework.org/Getting+Started+as+a+Volunteer).
To propose a pilot (i.e., become a “proposing organization”), you will be asked to use our simple, short and
straightforward Pilot template as described below. You should:
           1. Register as a committed member on the LRI initiative
              (http://wiki.siframework.org/Statement+of+Commitment+Tracker).
           2. Propose a specific pilot, describing stakeholders, provider types, and goals (see
              http://wiki.siframework.org/LRI+Pilot+Process). Include measurable pilot objectives that provide
              feedback on LRI Use Cases and the LRI IG, as well as addressing the Pilot Testing goals outlined at
              the LRI Strategy and Consensus Statement link referenced above (see the pilot brief template at
              http://wiki.siframework.org/LRI+Pilot+Brief+Template for suggestions on how to provide these).
           3. Commit adequate resources to successfully complete the proposed scope (see the pilot brief
              template for how to demonstrate this).



       Contact ONC Pilots Support Team member Ann Clarke (443-348-2765, Ann.R.Clarke@lmco.com )