The second stage of Meaningful Use could include some of functions that are part of the comprehensive information exchange system that the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) recommended in its end-of-the-year report.
These functions could include a patient's ability to download information to a personal health record (PHR), simple searches by providers and sharing of immunization data, according to an advisory work group that is examining PCAST, reports Government Health IT.
However, some work group members said incorporating various functions could be difficult since the industry lacks a standardized universal exchange language (UEL) message wrapper, according to Information Week.
This means it would not be feasible to include a compete "end-to-end" deployment of the technical tools and standards that PCAST envisioned for an exchange architecture in Stage 2 of Meaningful Use, notes Paul Egerman, work group chair and software entrepreneur.
Meaningful Use in 2013, though, could promote the use of patient portals, which give individuals access to their EHRs. Patients could then send or "push" their information or specific data elements to their PHR, which they control, Government Health IT notes.
For more details:
- see the Government Health IT article
- read the Information Week article