ONC Taps Accenture for Use Cases

ONC has awarded Accenture a two-year contract to develop and manage “use cases” of patient-related information which help identify real-world needs, prioritize them through a governance process, and create explicit documentation of the use cases.

Accenture will then use that information to create computer system requirements and technical specifications to promote interoperability.  One example of a use case would be ensuring that providers’ EMRs can handle patient requests for clinical summaries.

Accenture also will create a process for ONC’s standards and interoperability framework, as well as use-cases to go along with it. ONC’s framework “will establish a set of tools, processes and reusable components that enable the refinement and increased adoption of interoperability standards.” According to ONC, the framework also supports future standards for RHIOs, state-wide HIEs and the NHIN.