WASHINGTON, DC; Jan. 24, 2020 — EMI Advisors has joined Cognitive Medical Systems, in securing a National Institutes of Health (NIH) National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) prime contract.

EMI Advisors a boutique consulting firm that specializes in assisting public and private clients bridge the gap between health and human services policies, technology innovation, and business requirements, will serve as Cognitive’s key partner on this important initiative.

“The standards development community has made significant strides in developing and publishing robust health data standards to support interoperable data exchange,” said Evelyn Gallego, CEO of EMI Advisors.

“We are at a pivotal point to expand on this work to enable person-centered e-care planning for individuals living with multiple chronic diseases. We are delighted to partner with Cognitive and support NIDDK in the development and testing of a FHIR enabled e-Care Plan.”

Cognitive Medical Systems will direct the efforts for NIDDK’s Health Information Center to build electronic common data element models and profiles that describe key concepts related to kidney and other chronic diseases. Evelyn Gallego will serve as Standards Development Organization (SDO) liaison and Katiya Shell, Project Manager at EMI Advisors, will provide SDO coordination.

Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR) is the draft standard for health data formats and elements, with great interoperability potential. It is also an application programming interface (API) and has become one of the most popular protocols for health information exchange between disparate systems and data. Under this project, Cognitive’s team will utilize FHIR to develop a comprehensive Implementation Guide for NIDDK’s e-Care plan, and then create applications and pilots to demonstrate that the standard and toolsets enable clinicians to better manage patients with multiple chronic conditions (MCC), including chronic kidney disease, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and chronic pain.