- IMO Health integrated 29K+ USCDI v3 and v4 terms early to ease compliance
- We streamline implementation so providers and vendors avoid last-minute stress
- Our terminology keeps customers future-ready as standards evolve
- We drive better data and better care through stronger standardization
USCDI keeps evolving, placing strain on providers and health IT vendors alike. In this Q&A, Vidhya Sivakumaran, PhD – IMO Health’s Vice President of Clinical Informatics and Terminology Data Engineering – explains why we prioritized integrating USCDI v3 and v4 concepts into our proprietary clinical terminology (28,000 terms, to be precise) and how that decision benefits our customers.
Keep scrolling for all the details.
Q: What motivated IMO Health to prioritize early adoption of USCDI v3 and v4 concepts into our clinical terminology?
Vidhya Sivakumaran: IMO Health prioritized early adoption of USCDI v3 and v4 concepts based on direct feedback from our customer base. As a clinical terminology solution, we continuously expand our content to address emerging use cases, whether driven by regulatory requirements or other clinical needs.
Our sales and strategy teams collaborated with our existing and prospective clients to gather their valuable input. This collaboration identified USCDI adoption as a critical priority. By incorporating this content into our terminology, we aim to help US electronic health record (EHR) systems meet regulatory standards more efficiently, reducing the implementation burden for our healthcare partners, which has always been our goal.
Q: How does being early adopters of USCDI v3 and v4 benefit our customers in the real world?
VS: Keeping up and maintaining new USCDI versions creates significant implementation challenges for both provider organizations and health IT vendors. As regulatory requirements evolve, healthcare systems must continuously update their clinical data standards to maintain compliance. At the same time, vendors face the technical burden of updating their systems and ensuring seamless integration across platforms. This creates operational strain and diverts valuable development resources from other innovation priorities.
IMO Health prioritized staying ahead of these evolving developments to provide our clients with a stress-free integration path. By proactively incorporating USCDI v3 and v4 concepts into our clinical terminology before they become mandatory, we eliminate the burden of manual mapping and content maintenance for our partners. This allows healthcare organizations and vendors to focus on their core mission of delivering quality patient care, while IMO Health handles the complex work of maintaining current, compliant clinical terminology behind the scenes.
Q: Can you walk us through what it takes behind the scenes to integrate new USCDI concepts into our terminology?
VS: Integrating new USCDI content into our terminology involved eight comprehensive steps to ensure it is accurate and usable:
1. Gap analysis: Our teams conduct a thorough comparison between current IMO Health terminology and new USCDI standards, identifying gaps in coverage, determining applicable content, and evaluating necessary code sets.
2. Data modeling: We analyze the underlying data structure to ensure accurate modeling across different clinical use cases and implementation scenarios.
3. Content creation: Our clinical terminology experts develop new terminology that aligns with USCDI requirements while maintaining consistency with existing IMO Health standards.
4. Code set mapping: Each new term is mapped with appropriate standard code set(s) to ensure interoperability and compliance.
5. Classification and categorization: We programmatically apply USCDI classifications and categories to both new and existing terminology based on the USCDI standard, enabling precise clinical documentation and retrieval.
6. API optimization: The terminology undergoes additional data modeling to ensure seamless consumption into our APIs.
7. Platform development and deployment: We developed the IMO Health Terminology Server specifically to support USCDI requirements, providing a dedicated platform for accessing and implementing these enhancements.
8. Quality assurance: Throughout each phase, rigorous QA ensures accuracy, completeness, and seamless deployment into our APIs.
This systematic approach transforms complex regulatory requirements into ready-to-implement clinical terminology solutions.
Q: What are the real-world benefits for our customers as early adopters of USCDI v3 and v4?
VS: Being early adopters of USCDI v3 and v4 delivers tangible, immediate benefits to our customers across multiple dimensions:
- Competitive advantage: Our customers can market themselves as compliance-ready ahead of regulatory deadlines.
- Reduced implementation stress: Instead of scrambling to meet compliance deadlines, customers have the luxury of planned, phased implementations. This eliminates the costly rush to update systems at the last minute and reduces the risk of implementation errors.
- Operational continuity: Healthcare organizations can maintain smooth operations without disruption from hasty system updates. Clinical workflows continue uninterrupted while compliance happens seamlessly in the background.
- Futureproofing: Early access to USCDI v4 concepts means customers are prepared for the next wave of regulatory requirements, creating a sustainable competitive advantage rather than a perpetual game of catch-up.
- Enhanced patient care: Most importantly, improved data standardization leads to better clinical decision-making, more accurate patient records, and enhanced patient care across healthcare providers.
Q: Looking ahead, how is IMO Health preparing for future iterations of USCDI and other evolving data standards?
VS: Now that IMO Health has fully incorporated USCDI V3 and V4, our mission will be to stay on top of USCDI’s evolving standards. We have internal experts and teams that will monitor timelines and expectations around USCDI, work with our product teams to ensure roadmap alignment, and continue to expand our corpus of terminology where necessary. This is the same for any other evolving data standard IMO Health currently supports.
