Utilizing Standard Data Transactions and Public-Private Partnerships to Support Healthy Weight Within the Community.

CONTEXT

Obesity is a significant health issue in the United States that both clinical and public health systems struggle to address. Electronic health record data could help support multi-sectoral interventions to address obesity. Standards have been identified and created to support the electronic exchange of weight-related data across many stakeholder groups.

CASE DESCRIPTION

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention initiated a public-private partnership including government, industry, and academic technology partners to develop workflow scenarios and supporting systems to exchange weight-related data through standard transactions. This partnership tested the transmission of data using this newly-defined Healthy Weight (HW) profile at multiple health data interoperability demonstration events.

FINDINGS

Five transaction types were tested by 12 partners who demonstrated how the standards and related systems support end-to-end workflows around managing weight-related issues in the community. The standard transactions were successfully tested at two Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise (IHE) Connectathon events through 86 validated tests encompassing 38 multi-partner transactions.

DISCUSSION

We have successfully demonstrated the transactions defined in the HW profile with a public-private partnership. These tested IT products and HW standards could be used to support a continuum of care around health related issues encompassing both health care and public health functions.

CONCLUSION

The use of the HW profile, including a set of transactions and identified standards to implement those transactions, in IT products is a helpful first step in leveraging health information technology to address weight-related issues in the United States. Future work is needed to expand the use of these standards and to assess their use in real world settings.