About The Health Story Project
Approximately 1.2 billion clinical documents are produced in the United States each year. These documents comprise around 60% of clinical information, the majority of physician-attested information and are used as the primary source of information for reimbursement and proof of service. This tremendous source of clinical information is underutilized in current computer-based record systems.
Health Story is an alliance of healthcare vendors, providers and associations that pooled resources over the previous three years in a rapid-development initiative to produce data standards for the flow of information between common types of healthcare documents and electronic health records.
Health Story has an Associate Charter Agreement with Health Level Seven and works with related organizations toward harmonization. Six technical implementation guides supported by Health Story are now available as HL7 standards and draft standards for trial use, and a seventh is in ballot reconciliation within HL7 right now. There remain important document types to be defined as well as work to support their implementation. In addition, industry must be informed about the availability of the standards and about the essential role and benefits of electronic documents.
