Data Quality and Interoperability Challenges for eHealth Exchange Participants: Observations from the Department of Veterans Affairs' Virtual Lifetime Electronic Record Health Pilot Phase

Authors studied the United States (U.S.) Department of Veterans Affairs’ (VA) Virtual Lifetime Electronic Record (VLER) Health pilot phase relative to two attributes of data quality – the adoption of eHealth Exchange data standards, and clinical content exchanged. The VLER Health pilot was an early effort in testing implementation of eHealth Exchange standards and technology. Testing included evaluation of exchange data from the VLER Health pilot sites partners: VA, U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), and private sector health care organizations. Domains assessed data quality and interoperability as it relates to: 1) conformance with data standards related to the underlying structure of C32 Summary Documents (C32) produced by eHealth Exchange partners; and 2) the types of C32 clinical content exchanged. This analysis identified several standards non-conformance issues in sample C32 files and informed further discourse on the methods needed to effectively monitor Health Information Exchange (HIE) data content and standards conformance.