"We are so pleased that we now have this fundamental building block for quality measurement and improvement," said Janet Corrigan, NQF president and CEO. "The Quality Data Set will help ensure that measure developers use common data definitions and conventions when specifying measures for use with electronic health records."

The QDS framework ensures the latest health information technology requirements are seamlessly woven into quality measures. By providing a common language to describe the information within quality measures, the QDS enables quality measurement from a variety of electronic sources, including electronic health records (EHRs), personal health records (PHRs), registries and health information exchanges (HIEs). The framework consists of standard elements (a code list for a specific condition such as diabetes, or a medication such as aspirin); quality data elements (information describing the context of use in the clinical care process such as a past history of diabetes or the administration of aspirin); and data flow attributes (the sources of the information --who is providing the standard and quality data elements, what the care setting is, etc.)

SOURCE National Quality Forum