November 7, 2011
AMIA and its Nursing Informatics Working Group once again provided input to the National Quality Forum (NQF) during an open comment period to solicit input on NQF's Quality Data Model (QDM). In its comments, AMIA recognized the importance of having an information model that clearly defines concepts used in quality measures so that stakeholders (i.e., providers, researchers, measure developers) who monitor clinical performance and outcomes can clearly and concisely communicate necessary information. The QDM version 3.0 provides the potential for more precisely defined, universally adopted electronic quality measures to automate measurement through the use of electronic health information that is captured as a byproduct of care delivery. AMIA also expressed a general concern about the implicit assumption that electronic health record (EHR) vendors can or have implemented the functionality to support measures that rely on the QDM.