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More topics in this section
Data & Analytics
 * Data Infographics
 * Data Visualizations
 * Data Tools
 * Data Innovations
 * All-Payer Claims Databases
 * Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (CAHPS®) Program
 * Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP)
 * Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS)
 * National Healthcare Quality and Disparities Report Data Tools
 * AHRQ Quality Indicator Tools for Data Analytics
 * United States Health Information Knowledgebase
 * Data Sources Available from AHRQ


UNITED STATES HEALTH INFORMATION KNOWLEDGEBASE


The United States Health Information Knowledgebase (USHIK) was a metadata
registry of healthcare-related data standards funded and directed by the Agency
for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) with management support in
partnership with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.


OVERVIEW

The United States Health Information Knowledgebase (USHIK) was an online,
publicly accessible registry and repository of healthcare-related metadata,
specifications, and standards. USHIK contained information from numerous
healthcare-related initiatives. Its content included administrative items and
other artifacts for Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Quality
Reporting Programs, State all-payer claims databases (APCDs), Children's
Electronic Health Record (EHR) Format, and Agency for Healthcare Research and
Quality (AHRQ) Patient Safety Common Formats, as well as standards for
Accredited Standards Committee (ASC) X12, National Council for Prescription Drug
Programs (NCPDP), and Health Information Technology Standards Panel (HITSP).

The USHIK metadata registry was a neutral repository of metadata from an
authoritative source used to promote interoperability and reuse of data. The
registry did not attempt to change the metadata content but rather provided a
structured way to view data for the technical or casual user. The registry
contained core components and specific collections of metadata artifacts. These
core components and metadata attributes were based on the ISO/IEC 11179 Standard
for Metadata Registries  (Part 3 - Registry metamodel and basic attributes).

USHIK goals were to provide:

 * A tool to compare and evaluate metadata across multiple metadata standards;
 * A one-stop shop display experience for metadata standards to researchers,
   clinicians, policymakers, developers, and healthcare metadata users in
   general;
 * Support to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary's
   initiative to promote quality of care by enhancing the quality of data used
   to provide that care;
 * Harmonization across standards; and
 * Support for various standards-based initiatives from HHS.

USHIK is being archived because some of the metadata are maintained by other
sites and there is no need for duplication. In particular:

 * The standards metadata are available from the X12  and NCPDP  websites.
 * The HITSP is dormant and the materials are no longer available from other
   sites. The HITSP materials were previously available on www.hitsp.org but
   this site was disabled.
 * The Common Formats metadata are available from the AHRQ Patient Safety
   Organization Privacy Protection Center .
 * The CMS Quality Reporting/eCQM metadata are available from the Electronic
   Clinical Quality Improvement (eCQI) Resource Center.
 * The APCD metadata are available from individual State APCD websites .
 * The Children's EHR Format metadata and final report are not available from
   other sites.


PORTALS

The USHIK standards, metadata, and other artifacts were separated into several
portals based on topic, content type, and audience. Each portal presented a
specific subset of content relevant to a particular topic in a manner uniquely
useful to the users of that portal. The USHIK Home portal provided an overview
of all the information in USHIK.

The USHIK portals were:

 * Standards,
 * Health Information Technology Standards Panel (HITSP),
 * Common Formats - Center for Quality Improvement and Patient Safety (CQuIPS),
 * CMS Quality Reporting Programs,
 * All-Payer Claims Databases (APCD), and
 * Children's EHR Format.

A summary of each USHIK portal follows.

 * The Standards portal contained healthcare information technology (IT)
   metadata registered from Standards Developing Organizations (SDOs) accredited
   by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). This portal could be
   used to research, review, and compare metadata between different SDOs. The
   standards in this portal were established by consensus and approved by a
   recognized body that provided rules, guidelines, or characteristics for
   activities or their results. The SDOs produced a standard related to specific
   healthcare domains, such as pharmacy, medical devices, insurance
   transactions, clinical procedures, and administrative data.
   The Standards portal contained metadata from SDOs such as the ASC and the
   NCPDP. The ASC X12 was chartered by ANSI in 1979 and develops electronic data
   interchange (EDI) standards for national and global markets. ASC X12 has more
   than 315 EDI standards and an increasing number of XML schemas. Members
   include experts from the healthcare, insurance, transportation, finance,
   government, supply chain, and other industries. The standards on the portal
   included X12N 5010 Health Care Data Element Dictionary, NCPDP October 2011
   Data Dictionary, and NCPDP April 2014 Data Dictionary, now available at
   https://x12.org/  and https://www.ncpdp.org/ .
 * The Health Information Technology Standards Panel portal described the
   Panel’s public-private partnership aimed at achieving a widely accepted and
   useful set of standards to enable and support widespread interoperability
   among healthcare software applications. The HITSP addressed various standards
   issues, such as consumer access to clinical information, emergency responder
   EHRs, and general quality, security, and privacy matters. The Panel also
   assisted in developing the U.S. Nationwide Health Information Network by
   addressing issues such as privacy and security within a shared healthcare
   information system. The HITSP materials were previously available on
   www.hitsp.org but this site was disabled.
 * The Common Formats portal contained descriptions of the technical
   requirements pertaining to collection of patient safety data in the AHRQ
   Common Formats. The Common Formats are sets of standardized definitions and
   formats that make it possible to collect, aggregate, and analyze uniformly
   structured information about patient safety for local, regional, and national
   learning. The Common Formats are not an attempt to replace any current
   mandatory reporting system, collaborative/voluntary reporting system,
   research-related reporting system, or other reporting/recording system.
   The scope of Common Formats applies to all patient safety concerns,
   including: incident - patient safety events that reached the patient, whether
   or not there was harm; near-miss or close call - patient safety events that
   did not reach the patient; and unsafe condition - any circumstance that
   increases the probability of a patient safety event. Users of the portal
   could explore Common Formats data elements individually and compare two
   versions of the Common Formats with each other (Common Formats for Event
   Reporting – Hospital versions 1.1 and 1.2). Information about the Common
   Formats, including the latest versions and full supporting documentation with
   technical specifications, is available at
   https://www.psoppc.org/psoppc_web/publicpages/commonFormatsOverview .
 * The CMS Quality Reporting Programs portal contained specifications,
   artifacts, downloads, search tools, and other resources for Electronic
   Clinical Quality Measures (eCQMs) and Value Sets. The eCQMs are published by
   the CMS Quality Reporting Programs, and the value sets are published by the
   National Library of Medicine Value Set Authority Center (NLM VSAC). Users of
   this portal could view eCQM specifications, compare versions of eCQMs, and
   download files with eCQM and value set details. Details on the Quality
   Reporting Programs are available on the Electronic Clinical Quality
   Improvement Resource Center website at https://ecqi.healthit.gov/. Value sets
   are available at the NLM VSAC website, https://vsac.nlm.nih.gov/.
 * The All-Payer Claims Databases portal contained APCD File Submission
   Specifications from 14 states. APCDs are large-scale databases that
   systematically collect healthcare claims data from a variety of payer
   sources. These databases typically are created by a state mandate, generally
   include data derived from medical claims, pharmacy claims, eligibility files,
   provider (physician and facility) files, and dental claims from private and
   public payers. APCD systems collect data from the existing transaction
   systems in place to pay healthcare claims, thus leveraging data from within
   the insurance claims and reimbursement system.
   The information typically collected in an APCD includes patient demographics,
   provider demographics, and clinical, financial, and utilization data. The
   APCD portal allowed users to view, compare, search, and download the file
   specifications and data elements. The APCD portal was last updated in 2014,
   and the latest APCD versions and specifications are maintained on APCD state
   websites. The APCD Council provides information and links to state APCD
   resources at https://www.apcdcouncil.org/state/map .
 * The Children's Electronic Health Record (EHR) Format portal contained
   functional requirements released in 2013 and updated in 2015 to address the
   gap between the functionality in most EHRs and the functionality needed to
   support the care of children. The Format provided information about critical
   functionality, data elements, and other software requirements needed in an
   EHR system to address healthcare needs specific to children, especially those
   enrolled in Medicaid or the Children's Health Insurance Program. The
   Children’s EHR Format was not a specification or a software product but a
   list of functional requirements organized hierarchically within topic areas.
   More information about the Children's EHR Format and its enhancement can be
   found at
   https://digital.ahrq.gov/health-it-tools-and-resources/pediatric-resources/childrens-electronic-health-record-ehr-format.

Email digitalhealthcareresearch@ahrq.hhs.gov with any questions about USHIK or a
specific portal.


Page last reviewed July 2022
Page originally created September 2012

Internet Citation: United States Health Information Knowledgebase. Content last
reviewed July 2022. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Rockville, MD.
https://www.ahrq.gov/data/ushik.html


 
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