As healthcare ended 2017 as the most breached industry in North America, it is fitting that on Jan. 5, 2018, the Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) issued its draft Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement aimed at improving the secure, interoperable exchange of health data nationwide. According to HealthIT.gov, the Agreement is designed to bridge the gap between providers’ and patients’ information systems and enable interoperability across disparate health information networks (HINs). With goals to provide a common set of principles as well as minimum terms and conditions for trusted exchange, the draft framework’s tougher security proposals include more detailed authentication and identity proofing specifications as well as quicker breach notification than mandated under HIPAA. In terms of increased security, experts report that technology or requirements to implement technology or practice sets alone will not solve the problem of unauthorized access, use or disclosure of electronic protected health information (ePHI). With much work to do, the ONC is accepting feedback on the draft of the program through Feb. 20, 2018. Plans are for the final program to be published later in the year. As of now, participation is voluntary. Is your legacy data primed and ready for secure, interoperability on the Trusted Exchange Framework? What is the size of your hospital or health system? Does its inventory of out-of-production systems on your network top out at 2? 10? 40? or 140? While volumes of legacy systems across healthcare provider organizations vary, a single problem remains the same: they contain disparate stores of patient data that make availability, security and interoperability challenging. Does your IT leadership have a plan to consolidate legacy data silos to ensure secure, long-term record retention for the next 7, 10 or even 25+ years? Once consolidated, will the data be readily accessible and enabled for interoperability? Requests for historical patient records are fielded routinely from patients, payers, employers and lawyers. Keeping the data silo’d in outdated applications not only makes your healthcare organization vulnerable from a security standpoint; it also makes it far more difficult and costly to maintain, access and share ePHI. Entrust Us to Ready Your Legacy Data for the Trusted Exchange Framework As EHR companies join and exit the healthcare ecosystem and as the volume of hospital and ambulatory mergers and acquisitions continues to increase, a natural byproduct is EMR system replacement. As a myriad of data archiving vendors — claiming to have healthcare data expertise — clamor to the market with promising messages and varying degrees of proficiency and experience, you need one with a proven track record. Our team at Harmony Healthcare IT offers decades of experience dealing with health data. We came to the market early and have stayed ahead of the technology curve to ensure that our data extraction, migration and retention solutions meet current and long-term needs for providers. With our product, Health Data Archiver, we are laser-focused on our mission of preserving vital information that improves lives. Our growth has been steady and based largely on client referrals. Heads down, we get work done and deliver results, guided by a simple yet meaningful set of core values. Could your organization benefit from guidance to set a legacy data management strategy in motion that includes interoperability? Are you prepared to comply with record retention regulations, data security protocols and impending expectations from the Trusted Exchange Framework? We get data. We understand your needs. We can help. Connect with us.