EMI Advisors Supports Trial Use Publication of the HL7® Multiple Chronic Conditions eCare Plan FHIR® Implementation Guide
Washington, DC; October 9, 2024 — EMI Advisors is pleased to announce the release of a new technical guide to improve how multidisciplinary care teams manage care for people with multiple chronic conditions (MCC). The Health Level 7 (HL7®) Multiple Chronic Condition (MCC) Care Plan Implementation Guide (IG) was published as a Standard for Trial Use (STU) on August 13, 2024, and marks a significant step towards better, more personalized whole-person care.
Developed in partnership with the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), the guide introduces new data standards to help clinicians and caregivers create and share care plans for patients with complex health needs.
How Does This Guide Benefit Providers, Patients, and Developers?
The IG makes it easier for healthcare providers to coordinate care for people with chronic conditions such as diabetes, health disease, chronic pain, and Long COVID. It ensures that vital health and social needs information—like screening results, health concerns, goals, treatments, and outcomes—can be easily shared among different providers, caregivers, and healthcare systems. With this level of guidance, healthcare providers can use existing healthcare technology to deliver more coordinated and effective care, leading to improved patient outcomes.
The IG refines and adapts existing health data standards (FHIR® R4) to better support care planning. By following this new IG, developers can create technology solutions that help patients with MCC receive more comprehensive, coordinated care.
Five Years of Collaboration
The new IG is a culmination of five years of dedicated development, building on a decade of foundational work by the HL7® Patient Care Work Group. It incorporates input from clinicians and other experts on the essential elements of a person-centered care plan. The IG has been carefully tested and refined through HL7® FHIR Connectathon events and a real-world implementation pilot at Oregon Health & Science University.
Evelyn Gallego, CEO and Founder of EMI Advisors remarked, "The release of the MCC eCare Plan FHIR IG is a big step toward better care coordination and improved health outcomes for individuals with multiple chronic conditions. Ensuring that health and social care information is up to date and accessible—without creating more burden for providers or patients—is the key to better whole-person care.”
Key Contributions of the MCC eCare Plan Project
In addition to the IG, the MCC eCare project has made several important contributions:
Technical Expert Panels (TEPs): Four panels of healthcare experts developed specific data elements for managing five major chronic conditions—Chronic Kidney Disease, Type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, chronic pain, and Long COVID. EMI Advisors contributed to helping identify new data for Long COVID to improve care and research.
Health App for Patients and Caregivers: EMI Advisors developed a SMART-on-FHIR application that allows patients and caregivers to access and share health data from multiple providers in one place. RTI International is currently testing the app at Oregon Health & Science University.
National eCare Plan Policy & Guidance: Throughout the project, the team has helped shape national policy by integrating care plan standards into health IT certification requirements, such as the U.S. Core for Data Interoperability (USCDI), and federal programs like Medicare, Medicaid, and the Older Americans Act.
EMI Advisors has worked with NIDDK and AHRQ since 2021 to help create and advance these standards and tools, which empower patients, caregivers, and healthcare providers to better manage MCC.
The publication of this guide represents a major advancement in the standardization of care planning, offering a robust framework for managing the complex health needs of over 25% of Americans living with MCC.
About EMI Advisors
EMI Advisors LLC (EMI) is a boutique technology and innovation consulting firm that harnesses disruptive solutions for the greater good. Our team works side-by-side with our client partners to provide strategic, operational, and technical advisory services across the health, human services, defense, environment, and information technology sectors. We are mission-driven and consider it a privilege to design and build solutions that improve the well-being of individuals, communities, societies, and our planet. EMI is an SBA 8(a) certified Economically and Socially Disadvantaged Women-Owned Small Business. Learn more about EMI at emiadvisors.net
To learn more about the joint NIH/NIDDK and AHRQ eCare Plan Project, click here.