Dive Brief:

• The Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT introduced the multi-pillared ONC Tech Lab this week.
• The ONC Tech Lab will be used to improve existing standards and build consensus on what best serves interoperability needs, as recently outlined in the 2016 Interoperability Standards Advisory.
• Any further ONC-supported activities under the Standards and Interoperability Framework will be completed via the new structure, as its operations conclude over the coming months.

Dive Insight:

The four pillars listed under the ONC Tech Lab will be focused on improving standards coordination, testing and utilities, pilots, and innovation. 

Standards coordination will be used to focus on interactions with SDOs and industry stakeholders, as well as identification of standard gaps. Testing and utilities will encourage collaborative work on testing tools, while supporting the ONC Health IT Certification Program and the Standards Implementation & Testing Environment.

Pilots will support implementation pilots for standards, and initiate cooperation within the active pilot community. Finally, innovation will stimulate work with start-up communities and encourage administering of challenge contests.

The ONC Tech Lab will be implimented in concert with the ONC Health IT Certification Program, in hopes that internal and external stakeholders will become more informed of ONC’s standards and technology efforts, as its work on interoperability moves forward.