Leading Edge Acceleration Projects (LEAP) in Health Information Technology (Health IT)

The Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New York’s Scalable, Shareable, and Computable Clinical Knowledge for AI-Based Processing of Hospital-Based Nursing Data (SC2K) project seek to harness nursing knowledge in a systematic way to better capture the nuances of nursing data, leading to more comprehensive, accurate, and transparent algorithms. Additionally, the study seeks to develop scalable computational approaches to evaluate and improve the quality of data recorded by inpatient nurses and used in AI algorithms. Advanced AI methods will increasingly use data documented by nurses. Insufficient knowledge of nursing practice, nurse decision-making, and nursing workflows risks both inaccurate and undiscovered data signals.

• Area of Interest: Develop innovative ways to improve healthcare-data quality to support responsible development of AI tools in healthcare
• Estimated Completion : Fall 2026

Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU)’s Behavioral Health eCarePlan Collaborative Project seeks to adapt an open-source SMART on Fast Health Interoperability Resources® (FHIR®) application based on the HL7® Multiple Chronic Condition (MCC) care plan effort for three behavioral health use cases and pilot the application in stand-alone behavioral health clinics with challenges in exchanging health information.

• Area of Interest: Accelerate adoption of health IT in behavioral health settings
• Estimated Completion: Fall 2026

Western New York Clinical Information Exchange, Inc (HEALTHeLINK)

HEALTHeLINK’s Advanced FHIR Capabilities for Advance Care Planning project will demonstrate advanced FHIR capabilities to solve the complex problem of having advance care planning documents aggregated from disparate sources so they are accessible electronically at the point care.

• Area of Interest: Exploring the Use of Advanced Fast Health Care Interoperability Resources (FHIR®) Capabilities
• Estimated Completion: Fall 2025

Boston Children’s Hospital

Boston Children’s Hospital’s CumulusQ project seeks to cultivate an interoperable health IT ecosystem that enables easy access to high-quality, standardized healthcare data, with a focus on USCDI in FHIR format and using an open-source platform to improve data quality.

• Area of Interest: Identifying Data Quality Improvements for USCDI Data Elements
• Estimated Completion: Fall 2025

AllianceChicago

AllianceChicago’s Aligning Housing and Healthcare project will leverage HL7® FHIR® to enable service providers to integrate and coordinate services to better address SDOH for individuals experiencing homelessness.

• Area of Interest: Address Health Equity and SDOH Through Innovative, Open-Source Technology Tools, and EHRs
• Estimated Completion: Fall 2024

MedStar Health Research Institute

MedStar Health Research Institute’s Equity Engines project will develop the infrastructure and standards-based patient-generated health data (PGHD) technologies needed to demonstrate the scalable use of equity-enhancing PGHD for clinical care and research from the point-of-care to the researcher.

• Area of Interest: Demonstrate the Use of Equity-Enhancing PGHD for Clinical Care and Research
• Estimated Completion: Fall 2024

DARTNet Institute

DARTNet Institute’s Semantic Interoperability for Electronic Health Data Using the Layered Schemas Architecture project will build a data processing framework to enable semantic harmonization of health data that can be used for artificial intelligence (AI) training and research.

• Area of Interest: Health IT Tools to Make Electronic Health Records (EHR) Data Research – and Artificial Intelligence (AI)-Ready
• Completed: Fall 2023

University of Texas at Austin

The University of Texas at Austin’s FHIR-Enabled Social and Health Information Platform project aims to demonstrate a comprehensive integrated information system to manage social needs identified in clinical settings through bi-directional information exchange between clinical providers and community-based organizations delivering social care.

• Area of Interest: Referral Management to Address Social Determinants of Health Aligned with Clinical Care
• Estimated Completion: Summer 2024

The Chesapeake Regional Information System for our Patients (CRISP) and American College of Cardiology

The CRISP and American College of Cardiology’s Development and Testing of Data Sharing Functionality for Health System Participating in National Cardiovascular Disease Registries project aims to advance the health IT ecosystem through the accelerated adoption of modern standards, including the acquisition of clinical data for registry submissions and the use of data to improve care decisions.

• Area of Interest: Advancing Registry Infrastructure for a Modern API-based Health IT Ecosystem
• Completed: Spring 2023

Boston Children’s Hospital, Yale University, and Yale-New Haven Health

Boston Children’s Hospital’s Cumulus project will develop a platform that leverages bulk data to support an ecosystem for research and learning, including tools that allow users to annotate data for analytics, de-identify data, and query cohorts.

• Area of Interest: Cutting Edge Health IT Tools for Scaling Health Research
• Completed: Fall 2023

MedStar Health Research Institute (MHRI) and Georgetown Medical Center 

MedStar Health Research Institute’s and Georgetown Medical Center’s FHIR Factories project will develop and evaluate open health IT tools based on the HL7® FHIR® standard. These tools will be developed and tested to support data acquisition, data transformation, and advanced analytics. Additionally, this project will identify needs and gaps for researchers. 

• Area of Interest: Cutting Edge Health IT Tools for Scaling Health Research 
• Completed: Fall 2022 

Missouri Department of Mental Health (MDMH) 

Missouri Department of Mental Health’s Integrating Standardized Data to Advance Person-Centered Planning, Outcomes, and Value-Based Payment Models is working to implement a statewide case management system to improve the efficacy of waiver programs for individuals with developmental disabilities, efficiency and access of services provided to patients, program transparency and reporting capabilities, and data exchange and effective use of standardized data across stakeholders and partners. 

• Area of Interest: Integrating Health Care and Human Services Data to Support Improved Outcomes 
• Completed: Fall 2022 

The University of Texas at Austin

The University of Texas at Austin’s FHIRedApp project is developing and testing a patient engagement platform to support an ecosystem of mobile applications (apps). The apps will enhance health research and care opportunities for underrepresented populations.

• Area of Interest: Design, Develop, and Demonstrate Enhanced Patient Engagement Technologies for Care and Research
• Completed: Spring 2022

San Diego Regional Health Information Exchange

San Diego Regional Health Information Exchange’s Scalable Consent Framework for the Advancement of Interoperability with FHIR-based APIs project focuses on software development and research of standards, use case and community testing, production deployment, and consent management. An implementation guide and package of open-source prototypes and content also will be developed and shared to assist partners.

• Area of Interest: Standardization and Implementation of Scalable HL7 FHIR Consent Resource
• Completed: Fall 2021

Boston Children’s Hospital

Boston Children’s Hospital’s Pop Health on FLAT FHIR project is expanding the scope, scale, and utility of population-level application programming interfaces (APIs); enhancing the use of flat data files; and creating a new population health analytics application that will allow payors to access permitted population data and metrics.

• Area of Interest: Expanding the Scope, Scale, and Utility of Population-Level Data-Focused APIs
• Completed: Fall 2023

MedStar Health Research Institute

MedStar Health Research Institute’s Mobilizing a Million Hearts: Leveraging Health IT Architecture to Advance Clinical Knowledge and Care Coordination project is advancing clinical knowledge at the point of care by transforming an isolated risk calculator into open, standards-based application (app). The app works with health IT platforms and providers to improve clinical workflow, care coordination, and patient engagement.

• Area of Interest: Advancing Clinical Knowledge at the Point of Care
• Completed: Winter 2020