Texas HIE Interoperability Guidance

Texas HIE Interoperability Guidance

In order to facilitate statewide Health Information Exchange (HIE), the Texas HIE Strategic and Operational Plan provides that the Texas Health Services Authority (THSA) will develop technology standards, including reference guides and policies, to support vendor neutrality and ensure statewide and federal program interoperability.

The THSA, with input from stakeholders, has developed the following documents to serve as HIE interoperability guidance for organizations supporting HIE in Texas.

· Technical Standards Landscape Review - This document contains information gathered during an assessment of the State of Texas, Federal Government, and industry Healthcare IT landscapes to identify the relevant architecture, interoperability, and security standards being used or proposed to be used to support the secure exchange of health information among unaffiliated and (technically) heterogeneous organizations.  Texas HIEs can use this document as a reference tool to understand the overall technical standards landscape within the U.S.

· Enterprise Architecture Blueprint - This Enterprise Architecture Blueprint (EAB) document describes the architecture vision for the Texas HIE space for the next six years, divided into three two-year increments.  The EAB includes a set of high-level use cases chosen to reflect the Texas HIE vision and desired capabilities for the next two years (years 1-2).  It also includes planning considerations for years 3-4, and very high-level strategic direction for years 5-6.

· EAB Lifecycle Management Plan - This document is based upon information gathered during the development of the EAB and the Technical Standards Landscape Review, and is intended to identify the processes for managing the lifecycle of the enterprise architecture. This includes identifying the appropriate parties to implement change management, such as monitoring and updating as appropriate the standards used to establish interoperability between the local, regional and state level HIEs, as well as the standards utilized for the identified use cases in order to facilitate the continued support of Texas HIE and its connecting organizations.

· Technical Implementation Specifications - This implementation specification document is intended to serve as a technical reference guide for local and regional HIEs to use in implementing their networks.  The intent of the document is to define a high-level solution that HIEs and Health Information Service Providers can implement to meet the desired capabilities of Texas HIE as defined by THSA.  Technical standards have been identified and documented for each functional component defined in this specification.  Standards and profiles are also documented for the messaging and data flows required for communication between components.