New Joint Commission certification addresses secondary use of data

Editor's Note

The Joint Commission announced a new certification program in a December 5 Global Newswire press release. The new certification provides guidance to healthcare organizations on the safe transfer of patient data to third-party organizations.  

The voluntary Responsible Use of Health Data (RUHD) Certification program aims to help hospitals best navigate secondary use of data–or data usage outside of clinical care–which may include data used in quality and operations or artificial intelligence algorithms. While the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology reports that nearly 85% of US hospitals are able to export patient data for reporting and analysis purposes, there are no established standards for the handling of secondary health data. 

The RUHD certification program will guide organizations through best practices around: 

• patient data transparency
• limitations of data use
• de-identification
• algorithm validation
• data controls
• oversight structure. 

Hospitals are invited to immediately begin working toward RUHD Certification and can apply beginning on January 1, 2024.