Pediatricians and other clinicians who care for children have specific needs for health information technology (HIT) tools to help them provide the highest quality care for their patients. With guidance from AAP, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT established voluntary certification criteria for health IT used in pediatric care. The following 10 pediatric health IT functionalities are recommended in the 21st Century Cures Act Interoperability Final Rule.
- Use biometric-specific norms for growth curves and support growth charts for children.
- Compute weight-based drug dosage.
- Ability to document all guardians and caregivers.
- Segmented access to information.
- Synchronize immunization histories with registries.
- Age and weight-specific single dose-range checking.
- Transferrable access authority.
- Associate mother’s demographics with newborn.
- Identify incomplete preventive care opportunities.
- Flag special health care needs
Note: The AAP recognizes this is not an exhaustive list of important functionalities for EHRs used in pediatric care.