Health Information Exchange and Interoperability Flashcards

Which messaging standard, predating FHIR, has been the traditional backbone of hospital-to-hospital clinical data exchange since the 1980s?

Answer: HL7 v2

HL7 version 2 (v2) has been the dominant clinical messaging standard since the late 1980s, used for ADT notifications, lab results, and order messages between systems.

What is a patient consent directive in the context of HIE?

Answer: A patient's authorization governing how their health information can be shared in an HIE

A patient consent directive in HIE specifies the patient's preferences for how, when, and with whom their health information may be shared across participating organizations.

A Continuity of Care Document (CCD) is most closely associated with which standard?

Answer: C-CDA (Consolidated Clinical Document Architecture)

The CCD (Continuity of Care Document) is an implementation guide based on HL7's C-CDA standard, used to summarize patient health information for care transitions.

In an HIE, 'record locator service' (RLS) is used primarily to:

Answer: Identify which organizations hold data for a specific patient

A Record Locator Service (RLS) maintains an index of where patient records exist across participating HIE organizations, enabling efficient retrieval without storing the data itself.

Which of the following is an example of an 'information blocking' practice prohibited under the 21st Century Cures Act?

Answer: Intentionally delaying the release of electronic health information to a competitor EHR

Intentionally delaying or obstructing the access, exchange, or use of electronic health information for competitive reasons constitutes information blocking under the 21st Century Cures Act.

DICOM is a standard primarily used for exchanging:

Answer: Medical imaging data such as X-rays and MRI scans

DICOM (Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine) is the international standard for storing, transmitting, and sharing medical imaging data including radiology and cardiology images.

Which nationally recognized patient matching strategy helps link records in an HIE when a universal patient identifier does not exist?

Answer: Deterministic and probabilistic matching algorithms

Deterministic matching uses exact demographic fields to link records, while probabilistic matching scores the likelihood of a match based on weighted data elements — both are used in HIE patient matching without a national ID.