ONC ANPRM on Metadata Standards
The ONC is soliciting comments on metadata standards through an advance notice of proposed rulemaking (ANPRM) issued last week. Metadata is defined as “data about data” or “data that provides more information or detail about a piece of data.” In April an in-depth analysis of several widely implemented standards that include metadata was presented to the HIT Standards committee. The analysis was commissioned by the ONC and presented to the HIT Standards Committee which in turn made recommendations to the ONC.
The metadata standards under consideration relate to:
- Patient Identity Metadata – These metadata relate to patient identity and include: a patient’s name; date of birth; address; zip code; and relevant patient identifier(s).
- Provenance Metadata – These metadata would be used to provide information on the “who, what, where, and when.” Provenance metadata would include: a tagged data element (TDE) identifier; a time stamp; the actor; and the actor’s affiliation.
- Privacy Metadata – Privacy metadata would include a policy pointer and content elements descriptions such as data type (e.g., consultation note) and sensitivity.
The ANPRM
TITLE: Metadata Standards to Support Nationwide Electronic Health Information Exchange
AGENCY: Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, Department of Health and Human Services.
ACTION: Advance notice of proposed rulemaking.
DATES: The public comment period will close on September 23, 2011 at 5pm.