P01 - HL7 Membership PWS.doc

STATEMENT OF WORK

HL7 Benefactor Membership Renewal A. Introduction

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), Veterans Health Administration (VHA) requires a renewal of an existing one (1) year (12-month) Benefactor membership with Health Level Seven International (HL7).

B. Background

HL7 and its members provide a framework (and related standards) for the exchange, integration, sharing, and retrieval of electronic health information. These standards define how information is packaged and communicated from one party to another, setting the language, structure, and data types required for seamless integration between systems. HL7 standards support clinical practice and the management, delivery, and evaluation of health services, and are recognized as the most commonly used in the world. There are seven (7) HL7 standards categories: Primary Standards, Foundational Standards, Clinical and Administrative Domains, EHR Profiles, Implementation Guides, Rules and References, and Education & Awareness.

Membership to HL7 is crucial to the ongoing expansion and enhancement of the HL7 standard and the overall success of the organization. The Benefactor level of membership offers additional benefits that help the organization emphasize their involvement with HL7. This Benefactor membership includes all the benefits of organizational membership plus immediate access to all HL7 standards as they are released, the right to distribute HL7’s standards on an internal basis solely for use within the organization, authorization to use excerpts from HL7 standards in the organization’s implementation guides and the right to distribute them publically, the maximum number of assigned voting members, Annual Benefactor Award and recognition at HL7 working group meetings, and listing in the online Benefactor Directory. The Benefactor Directory places the logo on the front page of the HL7 website and includes a link to the organization's website generic log-in that gives the entire organization access to the Members Only section of the website, special recognition in HL7 press releases and other promotional materials, and special recognition in HL7 News (HL7's official newsletter).

VA has been an HL7 Benefactor member since 1996. HL7 develops standards required for the VA to exchange healthcare information internally within the VA and externally with agencies such as the Department of Defense and Indian Health Services.

C. Period of Performance

Twelve (12) months from date of award

Place of Performance

N/A

D. Type of Order

Firm-Fixed Price E. Scope of Work

The contractor shall provide one (1) year (12-month) Benefactor membership to HL7 International. HL7 offers levels of membership. By purchasing the Benefactor membership in HL7, VA is allowed all the rights enumerated below at the 'Organizational' and 'Benefactor' levels. We require the Organization level membership for access to all standards and ability to post the standards internally for access by all VA employees conforming with intellectual property laws. The VA purchases the Benefactor level in order to obtain the generic log-in that allows any VA employee free access to the HL7 website (see infra) and to increase the number of representatives and votes to the maximum allowed (see infra).

F. Description of Tasks Organization membership

The ability to transfer membership to others in your organization (helpful if someone leaves the organization or shifts focus to non-HL7 projects) -Multiple copies of all current HL7 standards -The ability to distribute the standards within your organization -The right to distribute excerpts of the standard to clients (i.e., as part of proposals or technical documentation) -The official "HL7 Organizational Member" logo to display on your website or include on your marketing materials or proposals -Discounts for your entire organization on HL7 products and online bookstore items -Listing in online organizational member directory -Free online job postings (up to five postings per month) Benefactor membership Benefactor membership includes all the benefits of organizational membership PLUS:

The maximum number of assigned voting members -Annual Benefactor Award and recognition at HL7 working group meetings -Listing in the online Benefactor Directory. The Benefactor Directory places your logo on the front page of the HL7 website and includes a link to your organization's website -Generic log-in that gives your entire organization access to the Members Only section of the website **** -Special recognition in HL7 press releases and other promotional materials -Special recognition in HL7 News, HL7's official newsletter.

HL7 develops standards to exchange healthcare information internally and externally. Health Level Seven (HL7) is an American National Standards Institute (ANSI) accredited standards development organization (SDO) that develops standards required for VA to exchange health care information internally within VA and externally with agencies such as the Department of Defense and Indian Health Services. Standards developed by HL7 are mandated for VA adoption by Executive Order 13410, to implement the Virtual Lifetime Electronic Record (VLER) required by the Obama Administration, and to achieve Meaningful Use of Electronic Health Record Systems as defined the Health and Human Services Office of the National Coordinator. These standards are only available from the developing SDO, HL7.

Renewal of HL7 Membership grants VA the following privileges:

· Twelve (12) assigned voting members.

· The ability to transfer membership to others in the organization (helpful if someone leaves the organization or shifts focus to non-HL7 projects)

· Multiple copies of all current HL7 standards

· The ability to distribute the standards within VA.

· The right to distribute excerpts of the standard to clients (i.e., as part of proposals or technical documentation)

· The official "HL7 Organizational Member" logo to display on our website or include on our marketing materials or proposals.

· Discounts for our entire organization on HL7 products and online bookstore items

· Discounts on HL7 meeting registrations.

· Listing in online organizational member directory

· Free online job postings (up to five postings per year)