ONC supports the advance of health information technology across the care continuum as well as activities and lessons learned that stakeholders may consider when seeking to explore health IT for maternal and pediatric care and practice settings.
Health IT can be used to support the safe and effective health care of children. In response to the requirements set forth in section 4001 of the Cures Act, ONC has:
- Developed ten recommendations for the voluntary certification of health IT for pediatric care that does NOT include a separate certification program for pediatric care and practice settings.
- Identified relevant certification Program criteria (referred to as the 2015 Edition Cures Update, which is inclusive of both the 2015 Edition Certification Criteria and the 2015 Edition Cures Update criteria).
- Focused on non-regulatory initiatives that are nimble and responsive to stakeholders, including development of informational resources to support setting-specific implementation that aligns with the ONC Health IT Certification Program.
This content on pediatric health IT compiles relevant documents as part of ONC’s final rulemaking to improve the interoperability of health information, including recommendations for pediatric health IT voluntary certification criteria.
NEW for 2024: The Interoperability of Maternity Health Care Records: Best Practices Informational Resource (IR) supports maternal healthcare providers. It aims to optimize the care of pregnant persons and focuses on the functionalities and standards that maternal healthcare providers may leverage in health IT to support the safe and effective healthcare of pregnant persons as part of peri- and post-natal care. This IR outlines specific clinical focus areas identified as high value and impactful for maternity care outcome improvement that benefit from using health IT for providing care, enabling shared decision making, and advancing interoperability beyond care delivery purposes.
See all Informational Resources below.
Fact Sheets
The Health IT for Pediatric Care and Practice Settings fact sheet [PDF - 241 KB] summarizes ONC’s response to requirements set forth in the Cures Act to support multiple care and practice settings, including the pediatric care and practice settings.
The ONC Approach and Stakeholder Opportunities for Advancing Health IT across the Care Continuum tip sheet [PDF- 161 KB] illustrates of our approach working on pediatric health IT.
Informational Resources
The ONC Interoperability of Maternity Health Care Records: Best Practices Informational Resource [PDF - 548 KB] focuses on the functionalities and standards that maternal healthcare providers may leverage in health IT to support the safe and effective healthcare of pregnant persons as part of peri- and post-natal care and to advance the interoperability (capture, exchange, and use) of this health data.
The ONC Pediatric Health Information Technology: Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome Information Resource [PDF - 808 KB] is intended to help clinicians that provide healthcare for infants with NAS. (NAS IR) builds on the foundation of the other IRs, focusing on a critical population.
The ONC Pediatric Health Information Technology: Developer Informational Resource [PDF - 594 KB] is part of ONC’s non-regulatory initiative to inform the technical and implementation specifications for developers of health IT products used by clinicians that provide healthcare for children. View the interactive version [PDF - 725 KB].
The ONC Pediatric Health Information Technology: Pediatric Healthcare Provider Informational Resource [PDF - 1.01 MB] complements the Developer IR and is also intended to help healthcare providers work with their health IT developers. View the interactive version [PDF - 1.2 MB].
Additional Pediatric Information:
- View the final ONC 21st Century Cures Act Rule
- View the ONC 21st Century Cures Act Proposed Rule including pediatric health IT archived information and the Pediatric Technical Worksheets [PDF - 464 KB].
- View the ONC Interoperability Standards Advisory (ISA) pediatric content.
- Read the blog post on ONC's Pediatric Health IT Efforts
- Read the blog post on ONC’s Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome Informational Resource
Additional Pediatric Resources:
- Vital Signs, BMI, and Growth Charts: 80 FR 62682
- CCDS Vital signs including optional reference range/growth curve for three pediatric vital signs: 80 FR 62695
- Requirement of health IT limit a user’s ability to electronically prescribe oral, liquid medications in only metric: 80 FR 62643
- Types of Care and Practice Settings: 80 FR 62704
Additional Maternal Health Resources:
- A USCDI+ Maternal Health domain was developed to establish a core set of data necessary for high quality care, equitable outcomes, and maternal health research.