State of Michigan to Present Results of Altarum Collaboration at CDC-ONC Industry Days

Altarum is excited to attend the first joint Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) Industry Information and Collaboration Days on February 27–28, 2023. The event will be hosted by the newly created CDC Foundation President’s Council, which was formed to spur action and innovation by forging partnerships between CDC and others to fight threats to the health and safety of the Nation.

This event will inform non-government organizations about CDC’s and ONC's plans for modernizing public health data and information systems and will provide the virtual or in-person attendees with opportunities to discuss their services with CDC and ONC staff. There is no cost to attend CDC-ONC Industry Days but in-person registration is limited. To learn more or register, visit the official CDC-ONC Industry Days website.

Altarum will be represented by our partners at the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) during a 30-minute breakout session on Tuesday, February 28th at 11:30 am ET. They will share how Altarum helped to develop and implement Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR)-based interoperability between the state’s death registration systems and the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) using CDC funding for National Vital Statistics System (NVSS) modernization.

While state health departments have nearly a decade's worth of experience with HL7 version 2 and version 3 standards used to report immunizations, syndromic surveillance, and reportable diseases, most have no experience with the new HL7 FHIR standard. Altarum worked with MDHHS to design a FHIR-based solution using Lyniate's Rhapsody Integration Engine, a product that many state health departments already own and use for existing public health reporting use cases. When it was learned multiple other states were interested in leveraging their existing Rhapsody capabilities to meet this new challenge, Altarum and MDHHS worked with NCHS to create a subset of the larger Community of Practice (COP) to focus on Rhapsody integration issues, share solution requirements and design criteria, development and testing artifacts, and other useful information among states and their vendors. The current Rhapsody User group includes representatives from 10 states, vendors, NCHS, the National Association for Public Health Statistics and Information Systems (NAPHSIS), and Mitre.

This presentation from MDHHS’s State Registrar Jeffrey Duncan, titled “A Partnership Among States and Industry to Advance Interoperability,” will focus on the challenges faced by states faced with the need to implement FHIR-based interoperability, the NCHS COP approach, and the Rhapsody FHIR user group. It will demonstrate how jurisdictions, vendors, and federal partners can collaborate to expedite the adoption and implementation of new technology.

Altarum has been helping public health programs integrate data for nearly 20 years. We have hands-on experience developing FHIR solutions and working closely with interoperability standards organizations. To connect with Altarum during CDC-ONC Industry Days or for more information on our work in this area, please reach out to Director, Strategic Partnerships Jim Kamp.