Health Level Seven International, an Ann Arbor, Mich.-based nonprofit dedicated to improving interoperability in health IT, announced Aug. 20 the addition of the Gravity Project to the HL7 FHIR accelerator program.
The Gravity Project is an initiative aiming to standardize medical codes to enable more efficient use of social determinants of health data across multiple arenas: patient care, care coordination between the health and human services sectors, population health management, value-based payment and clinical research. The project is initially focused on standardizing data regarding food security, transportation access and housing stability and quality.
The Gravity Project is the fourth project to join the accelerator. HL7 launched the program earlier this year to support organizations creating guides and other products to spur development and adoption of Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources, one of the most popular interoperability standards governing the exchange of healthcare data.
"Progress in patient care and research has made significant strides with the emergence of the HL7 FHIR Accelerator Program," HL7 International CEO Charles Jaffe, MD, PhD, said in a statement. "By incorporating the social determinants of health care into our decision process, the Gravity Project will help to transform care delivery and health analytics."