Quality Improvement Core (QI-Core) is a Health Level Seven International® (HL7®) implementation guide that defines a set of Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources® (FHIR) profiles that support interoperable quality improvement applications including digital quality measures (dQMs), electronic clinical quality measures (eCQMs), and Clinical Decision Support (CDS) artifacts. US Core profiles were used as a foundation when designing QI-Core profiles. US Core is a set of profiles that define minimum constraints on FHIR resources to support the additional clinical data requirements needed for quality measurement and decision support.
Health Care Quality: Benefits of QI-Core Alignment with US Core
- Standardization and Interoperability
QI-Core is designed to standardize the capture, reporting, and comparison of health care quality metrics across various providers and systems. By aligning with US Core, QI-Core facilitates interoperability, allowing different health care organizations to more easily share and compare data. This interoperability is essential for effective communication among health information systems, enabling better tracking and reporting of health care quality, which ultimately leads to improved patient outcomes.
- Patient-Centric Focus
Both QI-Core and US Core prioritize patient care by providing a unified framework that helps health care organizations incorporate quality measures into patient care processes. This integration has the potential to decrease implementer burden and allow health care providers to concentrate on delivering high-quality care, thereby enhancing the overall patient experience.
- Data-Driven Decision Making
With QI-Core based on US Core, health care organizations can make better decisions using reliable primary clinical data to identify areas for improvement, track progress over time, and make data-driven decisions that enhance care quality.
- Transition to Value-Based Care
The alignment of QI-Core with US Core supports the shift towards value-based care, where patient outcomes and care effectiveness are central to reimbursement rather than the number of services provided.
Both QI-Core and US Core support interoperable health data exchange by defining standardized FHIR profiles and implementation requirements. US Core provides the foundational FHIR profiles for core U.S. clinical data, while QI-Core extends that foundation to address additional requirements for quality measurement and clinical decision support. This alignment helps reduce variation in how data are represented and supports more consistent implementation of quality-focused applications.
From QDM and QI-Core to US Quality Core: Advancing FHIR-Based Measures
Quality measurement is transitioning from legacy Quality Data Model (QDM)-based electronic clinical quality measures (eCQMs) and earlier QI-Core-based FHIR measures toward US Quality Core-based digital quality measures (dQMs). US Quality Core provides the clinical data model for dQM development and builds on US Core to support additional data requirements for digital quality measurement and reporting. QI-Core served as an important FHIR-based successor to QDM for earlier dQM development; US Quality Core is now the information model being adopted for future FHIR-based quality measures.
Measure Authoring Tools
To assist measure authors in using US Quality Core and Clinical Quality Language (CQL), the Measure Authoring Development Integrated Environment (MADiE) tool is available. This tool streamlines the process of authoring measures and confirming adherence to the standards. Visit the MADiE webpage for more information.
Measure authors use the National Library of Medicine (NLM) Value Set Authoring Center (VSAC) to create, maintain, and access value sets used in measure logic. These value sets group standardized codes that represent specific clinical or administrative concepts and support identification of qualifying data, such as diagnoses, encounters, procedures, medications, and observations used to evaluate measure populations and other measure criteria. Visit the NLM VSAC Help page for additional information about authoring and managing value sets.