NQF issues quality data standards for electronic records

The National Quality Forum has published a standard set of clinical data elements to measure quality performance that electronic health records should be able to capture across all care settings. It will make it easier to compare healthcare providers' reports on their performance in quality measures, said Dr. Paul Tang, chairman of NQF's Health IT Expert Panel that drafted the data set. By providing a common language to describe the information within quality measures, the Quality Data Set enables quality measurement from a variety of electronic sources, including electronic health records, personal health records, registries and health information exchanges.