(Note: The data element information in this demonstration project is an unofficial copy from various organizations and these organizations have not reviewed or validated the information. Please contact the source organization for official data element information.)

The United States Health Information Knowledgebase (USHIK) is the metadata registry, administered and operated by the Health informatics Standards Board (HISB), to assist in cataloging and harmonizing data elements across Health Care Standards Development Organizations (SDO) and other interested Health Care organizations. Each SDO maintains independent control over its data definitions while facilitating harmonization across organizations. The goal of the USHIK is to establish a focal point for documentation about data used in health care and make it available for general use. The USHIK is being implemented in a phased approach. Initially, the current 'as is' SDO data dictionary content will be loaded into the USHIK, which supports basic metadata registry capabilities. Enhancements, to include data entry capability, to support SDO day to day operations, will follow.

The HISB and seven Health Care SDOs have accepted CMS's offer to utilize the USHIK to evaluate metadata registry capabilities. The organizations are:

• Accredited Standards Committee - Healthcare (X12N)
• American Dental Association (ADA)
• American Society for Testing and Materials Committee E31 on Healthcare informatics (ASTM E31)
• Health Industry Business Communications Council (HIBCC)
• Health Level (HL7)
• Medical Device Communications Industry Group (IEEE 1073)
• National Council for Prescription Drug Programs (NCPDP)

Additional Health Care organizations that are participating:

• Center for Disease Control (CDC)
• Department of Defense, Health Affairs (DoD HA)
• DoD HA, Department of Veteran's Affairs (VA) and Indian Health Service (IHS) for the Government Computer-based Patient Record (G-CPR) project
• National Committee on Vital and Health Statistics (NCVHS)
• Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, End Stage Renal Disease Program (CMS ESRD)
• National Institute of Health, National Cancer Institute

Limitations on completeness of data element descriptions and other capabilities

The data displayed on this site contains selected information from these Standard Development Organizations (SDOs) and other organizations involved in Health Care. The data is being loaded into appropriate metadata fields in the USHIK with as little modification as possible and linked to the Australian National Health Information Model (NHIM) in order to demonstrate capabilities of metadata registries. The USHIK load priorities are:

1. NCPDP Data Dictionary
2. DoD HA Glossary of Healthcare Terminology
3. X12N Healthcare Data Dictionary
4. NCVHS Core Data Set
5. HL7 Reference Information Model Views and Data Elements
6. CDC Core Data Set
7. IEEE 1073 Data Dictionary
8. ASTM E31 Data Dictionary
9. ADA Data Dictionary
10. HIBCC Data Dictionary
11. G-CPR Terminology Reference Data Elements
12. CMS ESRD Core Data Set
13. DoD HA Functional Area Model - Data
14. National Institute of Health, National Cancer Institute
15. LOINC Data Dictionary
16. HCPCS data dictionary
17. NDCD Data Dictionary

Additional information is required to fulfill the requirements of an ISO/IEC-11179 based metadata registry. Therefore, a registration status of "Incomplete" and an administrative status of "Received" is assigned to every data element initially loaded.