Defining Electronic Health Record Standards for Child Health: A State-of-the-Art Review

Obeid Shafi; Daniel Liu; Cori Thompson; Todd Margo; Timothy Bennett; Srinivasan Suresh; Feliciano Yu

doi:10.1055/a-2188-0736

Applied Clinical Informatics, Table of Contents

Appl Clin Inform 2024; 15(01): 055-063
DOI: 10.1055/a-2188-0736

Review Article

Defining Electronic Health Record Standards for Child Health: A State-of-the-Art Review

Obeid Shafi

¹Department of Biomedical Informatics, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Little Rock, Arkansas, United States

²Clinical Informatics, Department of Pediatrics, UAMS and Arkansas Children's Hospital, Little Rock, Arkansas, United States

,

Daniel Liu

¹Department of Biomedical Informatics, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Little Rock, Arkansas, United States

²Clinical Informatics, Department of Pediatrics, UAMS and Arkansas Children's Hospital, Little Rock, Arkansas, United States

,

Cori Thompson

³Drummond Group, Portsmouth, New Hampshire, United States

,

Todd Margo

³Drummond Group, Portsmouth, New Hampshire, United States

,

Timothy Bennett

³Drummond Group, Portsmouth, New Hampshire, United States

,

Srinivasan Suresh

⁴Division of Health Informatics & Emergency Medicine, Department of Pediatrics, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States

⁵UPMC Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States

,

Feliciano Yu

¹Department of Biomedical Informatics, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Little Rock, Arkansas, United States

²Clinical Informatics, Department of Pediatrics, UAMS and Arkansas Children's Hospital, Little Rock, Arkansas, United States

› Author Affiliations

Abstract

Background Improving child health using health information technology (IT) requires a unique set of functionalities that are built into the electronic health record (EHR) and are used to support patient care. In this article, we review and discuss the milestones preceding the development of a new child health EHR standard and describe the salient features of this contemporary standard.

Methods and Results The Health Level Seven Pediatric Care Health IT Functional Profile (HL7 PCHIT FP) is an informative standard that encompasses the EHR functions required to care for patients less than 21 years of age in any clinical setting, developed to address the pediatric-specific functionality gaps in the EHR. It includes criteria that support communication between providers and all caregivers, inclusion of pediatric-specific vital signs and diagnosis, support for transition to adult care, and support for reporting and documentation of child abuse or neglect including communication with involved authorities. EHR functionalities for documentation and reporting of newborn screening tests with follow-up for abnormal results and functionality for children with special health care needs with support for identifying patients who may benefit from care coordination are also incorporated, in addition to school-based linkages enabling communication between the health care system and their school environment.

Conclusion The HL7 PCHIT FP is envisioned to be another vital step towards improving pediatric health by enhancing EHRs to address the unique health IT needs of children and their health providers. While the HL7 PCHIT FP is the most recently published standard on pediatric EHR systems, standards development is an iterative process, and recommendations for continuous refinement and additional functionalities for the next standards release are encouraged.

Keywords

electronic health record - health level seven - child health - policy

Full Text

References

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