The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) on Monday published the draft 2017 Interoperability Standards Advisory (ISA) for public comment. 

The ISA is a coordinated catalog of standards and implementation specifications that are available for use by the health information technology (health IT) industry to meet interoperability needs. 

It is a key element of ONC’s continued implementation of the Nationwide Interoperability Roadmap and directly supports the Interoperability Commitments that leading health IT developers, providers, and professional associations and stakeholder groups made earlier this year to adopt “federally recognized, national interoperability standards, policies, guidance, and practices for electronic health information,” said ONC.

By providing the industry with a single, public list of the standards and implementation specifications that can be consistently used to fulfill specific clinical interoperability needs, ONC said it “hopes to spur more seamless and secure flow of information across the health system.”

The draft 2017 ISA also represents the first phase of ONC’s effort to transition the ISA to an interactive online platform, starting with the publication of this draft as an online version. Additional interactive functionality will be built throughout this year, according to ONC.