Healthcare Exchange Standards: IHE Public Comments

Now that everyone has more time on their hands, with no commute to work and no social hour over coffee, I want to remind you all about opportunity to provide YOUR comments to Healthcare Standards Organizations like IHE.

I am going to focus on IHE because they have stuff to comment on right now. HL7 will be coming up soon.

What is a ballot?

A ballot is the term we use to indicate a specification that we want comments on, and also your comments submitted are your ballot.

Who can comment?

IHE - ANYONE can comment, you do not need to be a member.
HL7 - you need to be a member or signup as a one-time participant

Where do I find things that are available for pubic comment?

How do you comment?

Both organizations have slightly different, yet very similar methods. Generally a comment can be as simple as an observation there is a typo, to a complaint about a given sentence, to questions about concepts, to directions to other relevant standards we might have missed. The more specific the better. Even better if you recommend how you would like the text to change, you might be right.

Each of these would be an individually recorded comment, within a set of comments. You would submit the set of comments. In this way we can review each comment, along with others comments on that same sentence or concept. Thus we get a feel for not just your concerns, but also the concerns of the community consensus.

Can I provide Positive comments?

YES. We love it when people point out when they agree with specific things too. This helps us weigh positive comments against others who provide negative comments.

IHE Ballot comment submission?

IHE has a web form that you submit your comments. Best case is you use a spreadsheet to record your comments, and submit the whole spreadsheet as one electronic submission. You can also submit then via an email.

See https://www.ihe.net/ITI_Public_Comments/

Here are some ballots from IHE that are ready right now. If you read my article after today, this list might be out of date. So go to https://www.ihe.net/resources/public_comment/