Notice to Ballot Commenters

This specification is the first STU ballot version of the BSeR FHIR IG. It provides guidance for using the HL7 Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR) standard as an exchange format for Bidirectional Services eReferral (BSeR).

BSeR involves the exchange of information between clinical care Electronic Health Records (EHRs) and service systems that reside in community services, lifestyle change, and public health organizations. They also involve the return of information from the services programs to clinical care.

The requirements gathering and analysis approach taken by the BSeR project was to conduct interviews with CDC chronic disease programs and a representative subset of CDC recognized service providers. Interviews were held with program and service representatives involved with the following health conditions: arthritis, diabetes prevention, early childhood nutrition, hypertension, obesity, and tobacco use cessation.

The interviews focused on gaining an understanding of current workflow, especially areas of the workflow that involves the inter-enterprise exchange of health information. A potential future-state workflow was used to assist in provoking out-of-the-box thinking and to solicit feedback regarding pain points and process change feasibility.

The BSeR Domain Analysis Model is a companion document for the FHIR Implementation Guide. The BSeR DAM is a conceptual model of the functional and information requirements of Bidirectional Services eReferrals. The DAM provides greater detail regarding the functional and informational requirements addressed by this FHIR implementation guide and should be reviewed in conjunction with the review of this specification. A pre-ballot version of the BSeR DAM can be found on the documents page of the HL7 Public Health Workgroup: link.

Desired Input

Program Specific Information Needs The FHIR standard was chosen for this problem space because of its ability to be responsive to change. Although every effort was made to solicit information needs and process flow requirements from stakeholders, it was not possible to reach everyone nor to cover all topics in depth. The project team would especially welcome any comments you may have concerning the proposed data content of program-specific transaction bundles.