The Sequoia Project, an independent advocate for health data sharing across the country, is turned five this month.
Here are six things to know:
1. The Sequoia Project was chartered as a nonprofit to advance secure, interoperable nationwide health information exchange in 2012.
2. It supports a number of initiatives, such as eHealth Exchange, Carequality and RSNA Image Share Validation.
3. The ONC has transferred management of its eHealth Exchange to The Sequoia Project for maintenance soon after it was established. The exchange now connects participants in all 50 states, including four federal agencies, 65 percent of all U.S. hospitals, 46 regional and state HIEs and 50,000 medical groups.
4. The Carequality Interoperability Framework, a public-private effort to further interoperability, has been implemented by more than 19,000 clinics, 800 hospitals and 250,000 providers.
5. The RSNA Image Share Validation initiative, which aims to ensure interoperable and efficient medical image exchanges, has validated seven companies in accordance with its rigorous technical testing standards.
6. The Sequoia Project also joined forces with the Care Connectivity Consortium to address challenges of ensuring effective health information exchange. The consortium includes a number of healthcare providers, including Salt Lake City-based Intermountain Healthcare and Oakland, Calif.-based Kaiser Permanente.