The Arizona Health Interoperability CouncilVendor-neutral · Statewide · Est. as Arizona Health-e Connection
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Glossary of Health IT terms
Interoperability runs on acronyms. This is a working reference to the standards, registries and rules that come up most often in health-data exchange — defined plainly and accurately, vendor-neutral throughout.
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Glossary of Health IT Terms
- 01HIE (Health Information Exchange)
- The electronic sharing of health-related information among organisations — and the organisations that operate such networks. A statewide HIE connects hospitals, clinics, labs and pharmacies so a patient's data can follow them across the system.
- 02HL7 v2
- A long-established Health Level Seven messaging standard that uses pipe-and-hat delimited messages (such as ADT for admissions and ORU for results). It remains the workhorse of clinical interfacing in most hospitals today.
- 03FHIR (Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources)
- HL7's modern, web-API-based standard built on modular 'resources' (Patient, Observation, MedicationRequest, and so on) exchanged over RESTful APIs. R5 is the current published release, with R4 still widely deployed and R6 in ballot.
- 04C-CDA (Consolidated Clinical Document Architecture)
- An HL7 standard for structured clinical documents such as the Continuity of Care Document, used to package a summary of care for exchange between providers.
- 05UDI (Unique Device Identifier)
- An FDA-mandated identifier that marks a medical device throughout distribution and use. It comprises a fixed Device Identifier (DI) and a variable Production Identifier (PI).
- 06GUDID (Global Unique Device Identification Database)
- The FDA's public database of device-identifier (DI) records submitted by labelers. It links a device's identity to its catalogue and safety information; PI values are not stored in GUDID.
- 07GS1
- A global standards organisation and FDA-accredited UDI issuing agency. GS1 identifiers carry roughly 85% of the items registered in GUDID and underpin most healthcare supply-chain barcoding.
- 08GTIN (Global Trade Item Number)
- A GS1 identifier for a specific product or trade item. In healthcare it can serve as the Device Identifier portion of a UDI and links a physical item to its catalogue and recall data.
- 09GLN (Global Location Number)
- A GS1 identifier for a physical or organisational location — a hospital, ward, loading dock or supplier — used to make ordering, delivery and traceability unambiguous.
- 10EPCS (Electronic Prescribing for Controlled Substances)
- The DEA-regulated practice of prescribing Schedule II–V controlled substances electronically. It adds identity-proofing and two-factor authentication on top of standard electronic prescribing.
- 11NCPDP SCRIPT
- The National Council for Prescription Drug Programs standard that carries electronic prescriptions — new orders, renewals, cancellations and changes — between prescribers and pharmacies.
- 12DSCSA (Drug Supply Chain Security Act)
- A U.S. law requiring an electronic, interoperable system to trace prescription drugs at the package level across the supply chain, using serialization and unique product identifiers.
- 13MPI (Master Patient Index)
- A system that links the many records belonging to one person across different organisations to a single, reliable identity — the matching backbone that lets an HIE return the right patient's data.
- 14ELR (Electronic Laboratory Reporting)
- The electronic transmission of laboratory results from labs to providers and, for reportable conditions, to public-health agencies, typically as structured HL7 messages.
- 15RPM (Remote Patient Monitoring)
- The use of connected devices in the home — blood-pressure cuffs, glucometers, pulse oximeters and similar — to capture readings and transmit them to clinicians between visits.
- 16LOINC (Logical Observation Identifiers Names and Codes)
- A universal coding system for laboratory tests and clinical observations, so that the same measurement means the same thing regardless of which lab produced it.
- 17UCUM (Unified Code for Units of Measure)
- A standard set of codes for units of measure (mg, mmol/L, and so on) that lets systems exchange quantitative results without ambiguity.
- 18Opt-in / Opt-out consent
- Two models for patient participation in data sharing. Opt-in means data is shared only after the patient agrees; opt-out means data is shared unless the patient declines. Each shapes how much data the network can carry.
- 1942 CFR Part 2
- A U.S. federal regulation giving heightened confidentiality protection to records from substance-use-disorder treatment programs, with consent requirements stricter than HIPAA's.
- 20HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act)
- The U.S. law whose Privacy and Security Rules set the baseline for protecting health information — covering minimum-necessary use, safeguards, audit controls and encryption.
- 21IHE (Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise)
- An initiative that publishes implementation profiles specifying how existing standards (HL7, DICOM and others) should be combined to solve real interoperability use cases consistently.
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The glossary grows from the questions stakeholders bring to the table. Suggest an entry and we will define it plainly.