Dawn of the Health Standards Collaboration

This happened to be the first meeting of the SCO that I was unable to attend in person since its formation back in 2008. The “SCO” moniker was short for SDO Charter Organization. Since SDO in this context means Standards Development Organization, SCO pulled off the amazing feat of having an acronym within an acronym. Talk about inside baseball :-).

The SCO was formed as a gathering place for the executives of SDOs that had a role in U.S. national healthcare informatics standards to discuss, coordinate, and collaborate. As Regenstrief’s representative, I’ve found the SCO a hugely valuable space to interact with my colleagues at other standards groups.

Although SCO is short and the current domain name still reflected our first ever meeting (a summit), I think Health Standards Collaboration really nails the essence of what the group is about.

There are a number of changes for the organization underway. A new charter document for the organization is in the works. I’m assisting John Klimek and his team at NCPDP with a website refresh. The new site will be launching soon at healthstandardscollaboration.org (and .com). On Twitter we’ll be @standardscollab.

As a side note, NCPDP leadership deserves a lot of credit for initiating the SCO and continuing to help us advance.

All this should make Steve Posnack at ONC quite happy. He rightly pointed out how the current website was a little to 1999ish.

So, here’s to the dawn of a new phase with Health Standards Collaboration.

Sunrise reflecting on Chicago skyline

P.S. As a native Chicagoan, I thought John Klimek would appreciate these photos.

Introducing the Health Standards Collaboration

Dawn of the Health Standards Collaboration