Segmenting EHRs to Protect Privacy

ONC will hold a webinar Oct. 5 to describe the Data Segmentation Initiative. It has created a Wiki page that describes how organizations can join the effort to create standards for the segmentation of data elements within EHRs. "Wide community participation will ensure that the standards reflect technology used across the industry and meet the needs of all stakeholders," says Joy Pritts, ONC's chief privacy officer.

The project will involve using metadata tags to indicate patient consent for the exchange of specific elements within a record. For example, such a tag could indicate that a patient does not want information about substance abuse treatment shared. The approach was advocated in a report from the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology as a component of its proposed standard approach to health information exchange.

Earlier, ONC announced other related projects, including:

• Query Health, a project designed to test standards for querying data from electronic health records to conduct research. That project also will leverage metadata tags as envisioned by PCAST.
• Tests at the Indiana Health Information Exchange. The HIE is testing enabling more detailed queries of records at the data element level by using metadata tags in patient summary care records. It's also developing a user interface to enable patients to have more granular control over the sharing of their information.
• Tests at the Health Information Exchange of Montana. This HIE is testing metadata standards by generating patient care summaries from EHR systems and enabling queries to answer population health questions.