Last December, Health Level Seven International, an authority on standards for interoperability, launched the Argonaut Project, an initiative to accelerate the development and adoption of interoperability resources.
Here are four things to know about the Argonaut Project.
1. HL7 launched the Argonaut Project in response to the JASON Task Force's recommendations to improve interoperability. JASON is an independent group of scientists and researchers that advise the federal government on issues of science and technology. The task force released a report in April urging the government to form a national, standardized health IT architecture to encourage interoperability. This, in essence, is the goal of the Argonaut Project, to support interoperability through HL7's Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources and develop a first-generation FHIR-based application programming interface.
2. Eleven organizations representing various stakeholders are involved in the Argonaut Project: athenahealth, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, Cerner, Epic, Salt Lake City-based Intermountain Healthcare, Rochester, Minn.-based Mayo Clinic, MEDITECH, McKesson, Boston-based Partners HealthCare System, SMART at the Boston Children's Hospital Informatics Program and The Advisory Board Company. In April, Accenture and Surescripts joined the project.
3. In its mission to boost interoperability, the Argonaut Project suggests replacing healthcare-specific standards with universal, Internet-based standards. This is where FHIR comes in. FHIR data exchange standards are universal. The healthcare industry currently uses Consolidated Clinical Document Architecture, a healthcare-specific set of document standards, said John Halamka, MD, CIO of BIDMC, in an Information Week report.
4. The project is named after the Greek Argonauts, which were a group of Greek mythological heroes who came together for the unifying mission of finding the Golden Fleece.
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