Electronic Medical Record (EMR) Update on Including Donor & Adoption in the EMR

Posted on March 8th, 2022 by Lori Metz, LCSW, CCM, BC-TMH

Joe Cody and I had the pleasure of being invited to the Electronic Medical Records (EMR) Association general meeting. This forum consisted of representation from approximately 30 electronic health record vendors, who come together to discuss ways of discussing policies that impact EMRs and keeping them current, and moving them forward.

I am pleased to report that they were very interested in our request to add donor conception and adoption to the medical intake portion of the electronic medical record history screens. They understood the potential value changes in the language could make for clinical care, requesting we provide suggested language for the current list of families in the medical history section, specifically mentioning resources maintained under the HL7 FHIR standard. FHIR is a standard describing data formats and elements (known as “resources”) and is an application programming interface (API) for exchanging health information electronically. EMR vendors across the country are rapidly adopting FHIR standards. There are programs in place requiring the adoption of this standard by vendors and insurers who participate in Medicare, Medicaid, and other federal health programs. An overview of FHIR can be found at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fast_Healthcare_Interoperability_Resources.

Specifically, under the Family Member value set of resources (available at https://www.hl7.org/fhir/v3/FamilyMember/vs.html) there are types of families that can currently be included in the system and exchanged with systems. The good news is that adoption is included. We have elicited feedback and insight from the medical, professional educational & research, hospital administrative, donor-conceived people, recipient parents, mental health, and the legal communities.

Should these additions be included, it will be a significant step towards having donor conception and adoption included in the medical intake process, which we will be submitting to the committee. Should these additions be accepted, it will be a significant step towards having donor conception and adoption included in the medical intake process.