WASHINGTON – The Healthcare Information Technology Standards Panel is developing a global standards that support "core research data element exchange."

HITSP is specifically working to identify a common set of information that can be exchanged from a practice's implemented electronic health record and other clinical research systems.

Thirty-five organizations have offered their financial support  in order to help push forward the research.

"On behalf of ANSI, I thank these organizations for their generosity and forward thinking," said Frances Schrotter, American National Standards Institute senior vice president and chief operating officer. "These contributions have made it possible for HITSP to begin working toward a sustainable, interoperable infrastructure through which healthcare advances clinical research and in turn informs clinical care."

Other federal agencies provideding support  include the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, the National Cancer Institute, the National Center for Research Resources, and the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology.

The HITSP standards initiative was launched last year when the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services had requested that ANSI create a work group to organize and prioritize a value/use set of standards in this area. Heading up the work group are Rebbecca Kush, president and CEO of Clinical Data Interchange Standards and Constortium, and Gregory Downing, director the Initiative on Personalized Health Care.

HITSP officials said the final goal of this effort is to develop a streamlined electronic standards implementation guide that outlines the standards, how they support clinical research, and how they fit with existing HITSP guidelines - termed "Interoperability Specifications"- that are already in use within the clinical care environment.

"Our work will help to streamline and enhance clinical research within the healthcare setting, providing the means to better assess such areas as efficacy, effectiveness and safety for the benefit of patients, investigators, clinicians, technology and service providers, and researchers alike," said Kush.