{"doi":"10.1016/j.xops.2022.100210","title":"Ocular Health and National Data Standards: A Case for Including Visual Acuity in the United States Core Data for Interoperability (USCDI)","abstract":"Health care data standards are critical for information exchange between clinical information systems such as electronic health record systems, imaging devices, and picture and archiving communication systems. Data standards are also important for facilitating care coordination for patients across different care settings. Recent federal regulations such as the 21st Century Cures Act have brought health care data standards to the forefront of national discourse. While the need for greater adoption of imaging data standards in ophthalmology has been recently highlighted,1Lee A.Y. Campbell J.P. Hwang T.S. et al.Recommendations for standardization of images in ophthalmology.Ophthalmology. 2021; 128: 969-970Abstract Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (20) Google Scholar there is, similarly, an ongoing need to expand other data standards for ophthalmology.2Baxter S.L. Lee A.Y. Gaps in standards for integrating artificial intelligence technologies into ophthalmic practice.Curr Opin Ophthalmol. 2021; 32: 431-438Crossref PubMed Scopus (3) Google Scholar Health care data standards applicable to other areas of medicine often do not take into account the unique data elements captured in an eye exam. Here, we provide an overview of the United States Core Data for Interoperability (USCDI), a standardized set of data elements intended to enable nationwide, interoperable health information exchange.3AnonUnited States core data for interoperability (USCDI).https://www.healthit.gov/isa/united-states-core-data-interoperability-uscdiDate accessed: January 24, 2022Google Scholar Furthermore, we discuss some reasons why ocular data elements should be included in the USCDI, with reference to specific use cases published in the ophthalmology literature that demonstrate the potential public health impact of including these elements. The 21st Century Cures Act, signed into law in December 2016,4Anon21st Century Cures Act.https://www.congress.gov/114/plaws/publ255/PLAW-114publ255.pdfDate accessed: March 1, 2022Google Scholar was designed to help accelerate medical product development and bring new innovations for patients who need them faster and more efficiently.5Office of the Commissioner21st Century Cures Act. US Food and Drug Administration 2020.https://www.fda.gov/regulatory-information/selected-amendments-fdc-act/21st-century-cures-actDate accessed: March 23, 2022Google Scholar One important aspect that the law addresses is data sharing in the context of health information technology. Specific elements that are required to be exchanged are organized under the USCDI. The regulations adopted to satisfy the 21st Century Cures Act set the expectation that elements of a patient's health information that are stored electronically should be available in patient-facing health care applications and able to be exchanged easily among health information systems such as electronic health records and patient portals. Such exchange has been challenging due to different representations of the same data across diverse clinical systems.6Bernstam E.V. Warner J.L. Krauss J.C. et al.Quantitating and assessing interoperability between electronic health records.J Am Med Inform Assoc. 2022; 29: 753-760Crossref PubMed Scopus (3) Google Scholar The approach taken to overcome this challenge has been to define a minimum set of specific data elements within specific health data classes for information that need to be exchanged between vendors. The goal of USCDI is to delineate a core set of structured and unstructured elements needed to support patient care and patient access across health information technology. Additionally, these harmonized data elements would ideally also be relevant across use cases outside of clinical care and patient access, such as research and technology development. The USCDI will expand over time in an incremental process that will include collaboration and public engagement. The USCDI defines data elements as granular data that are organized in","journal":"Ophthalmology Science","year":2022,"id":270316,"datarank":0.40620753016533157,"base_score":2.70805020110221,"endowment":2.70805020110221,"self_citation_contribution":0.40620753016533157,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.40620753016533157,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":14,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9122,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2022-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":934100,"name":"Amberlynn A. Reed","orcid":"0000-0001-8249-0581","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":449212,"name":"April Y. Maa","orcid":"0009-0000-4863-1870","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":282244,"name":"Michael V. Boland","orcid":"0000-0003-2506-7095","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":934576,"name":"Durga S. Borkar","orcid":null,"position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":934101,"name":"Eric N. Brown","orcid":"0000-0002-2641-1890","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":356642,"name":"Flora Lum","orcid":"0009-0009-3823-4826","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":452967,"name":"Kerry Goetz","orcid":"0000-0002-9821-7704","position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":349921,"name":"Sally L. Baxter","orcid":"0000-0002-5271-7690","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":21,"raw_metadata":{"citation_network_status":"fetched"},"created_at":"2026-07-19T00:27:26.772098Z","pmid":"36570621","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}