Blog

Insights on health informatics, interoperability, clinical decision support, and the technology shaping healthcare.

Interoperability Dec 11, 2025 · Dr. Jim Shalaby · 4 min read
CMS-0057-F: Modernizing Prior Authorization with FHIR and CQL

The CMS Interoperability and Prior Authorization Final Rule recommends FHIR Questionnaires and CQL for electronic prior authorization, ushering in automation for a process long plagued by complexity.

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Interoperability Aug 25, 2025 · Dr. Aziz Boxwala · 5 min read
Taming the FHIR Frontier: Navigating a World of Variations

FHIR isn’t a single standard but a family of standards with multiple versions and implementations. Here’s how we navigate the complex landscape to achieve true interoperability.

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SDOH Aug 4, 2025 · Dr. James Shalaby · 4 min read
Why CMS’s Digital Health Push Risks Leaving Social Care Behind

CMS’s interoperability plan risks sidelining social care data. Without addressing HRSN and SDOH, efforts toward whole-patient care may fall short.

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AI Jul 28, 2025 · Elimu Informatics · 4 min read
Unlock Seamless Electronic Health Record Integration of AI with FHIR

Domain-specific AI solutions need seamless EHR integration. SMART-on-FHIR provides a uniform, secure, and scalable framework for clinical data access and workflow integration.

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AI Jun 24, 2025 · Dr. James Shalaby · 5 min read
Generative AI-Enhanced Knowledge Engineering

A marriage between human curation and generative-AI efficiency. At Elimu, our knowledge engineers are utilizing generative AI to make the process much more efficient while uncovering the risks of building content without human oversight.

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SDOH Dec 20, 2024 · Dr. James Shalaby · 3 min read
Reflections on the Civitas Networks for Health Conference

Remarkable progress underway in many states to build collaboration, infrastructure and integration to better coordinate social and medical care in their communities.

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CDS May 19, 2024 · Elimu Informatics · 4 min read
Discover the Peri-Op Opioid Monitor

Your clinical team can efficiently monitor daily post-operative patient opioid consumption with Elimu’s Sapphire® Peri-Op Opioid Monitor, integrated seamlessly with your EHR.

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SDOH Apr 23, 2024 · Elimu Informatics · 6 min read
SDOH Guidance and Technical Support with Interoperability Standards Implementation

Gravity SDOH interoperability pilots are underway. Elimu with Civitas provides guidance in several domains to support practical and tailored adoption of the Gravity standards.

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Genomics Mar 19, 2024 · Elimu Informatics · 5 min read
Vision for Precision Medicine on FHIR

Leveraging the full spectrum of patient-specific data for advanced clinical decision making through FHIR-based genomics-EHR integration.

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AI Jan 29, 2024 · Dr. James Shalaby · 8 min read
Can AI Replace Human Curation of Value Sets?

Exploring the potential and limitations of today’s AI engines to reduce labor in value set curation — and why human oversight remains essential.

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Interoperability Nov 14, 2023 · Elimu Informatics · 4 min read
SMART-on-FHIR Apps Optimize Real World Data Capture for Registries and Research

SMART-on-FHIR apps let registries and researchers harvest high-quality real world data directly from EHRs — improving accuracy, interoperability, and patient recruitment.

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SDOH Oct 27, 2022 · Elimu Informatics · 3 min read
Getting SDOH Infrastructure and Standards Right: Interoperability & Equity at Scale

A look at the work of the Gravity Project and the CMS Connectathon — and what it takes to build SDOH infrastructure that delivers on the promise of social equity at scale.

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Genomics Oct 20, 2022 · Elimu Informatics · 4 min read
Bringing Pharmacogenomics into Mainstream Clinical Practice with PillHarmonics™

Elimu has been awarded an SBIR grant to create PillHarmonics™, a decision support service that orchestrates comprehensive medication CDS incorporating pharmacogenomic considerations.

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CDS Mar 14, 2022 · Elimu Informatics · 6 min read
A Novel CDS Strategy for Molecularly-Guided Clinical Trials Matching

Using HL7 Clinical Quality Language (CQL) and the FHIR Genomics IG, we can express molecular trial inclusion criteria as computable logic — opening the door to automated trial matching for precision oncology.

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Interoperability Jan 21, 2022 · Elimu Informatics · 3 min read
The Potential of SMART on FHIR Solutions to Mitigate Physician Burnout

EHRs are widely cited as a contributor to physician burnout. Thoughtfully designed SMART on FHIR apps can cut through the data tsunami and bring the right information to the right person at the right time.

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CDS Sep 9, 2021 · Dr. James Shalaby · 4 min read
Understanding Value Sets and Their Essentiality to CDS Rules

Value sets are foundational to CDS, quality measures, and reporting — but they’re notoriously hard to model and maintain. A look at what makes the difference between brittle and durable value sets.

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Genomics Apr 13, 2021 · Dr. James Shalaby · 2 min read
Free CPIC PGx Value Sets Download

A practical mapping from CPIC Level A medication ingredient codes to the RxNorm codes commonly found in EHRs — ready to plug into your pharmacogenomic CDS.

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Interoperability Mar 16, 2021 · Elimu Informatics · 3 min read
Is Texting Patient Information HIPAA Compliant?

Texting is how patients prefer to communicate — but PHI demands HIPAA-grade safeguards. Done right, secure texting becomes a powerful, automated extension of care management.

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CDS Aug 5, 2020 · Elimu Informatics · 3 min read
10% of Cardiac Surgery Patients Utilize Opioids 3 Months After Surgery

A recent JAMA Cardiology study showed 1 in 10 cardiac surgery patients are still filling opioid prescriptions months after surgery. Real-time MME awareness at the bedside can help bend that curve.

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Genomics Jul 6, 2020 · Elimu Informatics · 4 min read
Elimu’s Response to the CDC RFI on Next Generation Sequencing

Small changes in CLIA lab regulations could unlock far more next-generation sequencing data for clinical decision support — here’s what we told the CDC.

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Genomics Jun 19, 2020 · Elimu Informatics · 8 min read
A COVID-19 Genetics Primer for Informaticists

A refresher on SARS-CoV-2 biology, diagnostics, vaccines, and treatments — designed to spark out-of-the-box thinking among informatics professionals fighting the pandemic.

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Genomics Nov 5, 2019 · Elimu Informatics · 7 min read
Are Easy Access and Security in Genome Analysis Compatible? (Yes!)

A new framework using homomorphic encryption lets us analyze genomic data while it remains encrypted — reconciling the freedom to study data with the imperative to keep it secure.

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CDS Sep 23, 2019 · Jim Shalaby · 6 min read
The Combined Use of Clinical & Claims Data to Enhance Clinical Insights

As clinical data becomes more accessible through FHIR and C-CDA, combining it with claims data unlocks richer analytics — but only with the right reconciliation rules.

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Genomics Sep 5, 2019 · Elimu Informatics · 4 min read
Precision Medicine on FHIR?

A FHIR Genomics ecosystem — combining GACS, knowledge sources, and clinical decision support — can surface what we already know about precision oncology at the point of care.

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Genomics Jul 9, 2019 · Elimu Informatics · 5 min read
Are Your Genomic Variants Really Valid?

A surprising share of variants returned by NGS pipelines can be false positives. Confidence tiering could let CDS engines safely reason against a far wider set of variants — without Sanger confirmation.

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Interoperability Jun 3, 2019 · Elimu Informatics · 5 min read
Improving EHR Usability at AMIA’s 2019 CIC

A roundup from AMIA’s 2019 Clinical Informatics Conference: custom patient views, SMART on FHIR apps, and voice assistants all working to make EHRs less of a hunt and more of a help.

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Interoperability May 14, 2019 · Elimu Informatics · 3 min read
Highlights from AMIA’s 2019 Clinical Informatics Conference

Our take on the best of AMIA’s 2019 CIC in Atlanta — from CDS quality improvement and agile development to voice assistants and Sync for Genes.

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Genomics Apr 25, 2019 · Elimu Informatics · 4 min read
Happy National DNA Day!

A look at five recent advances in genomic medicine, plus our own contributions to genomics-EHR integration — in celebration of the double helix and the Human Genome Project.

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Genomics Mar 19, 2019 · Elimu Informatics · 2 min read
Our VCF to FHIR Translator for Genomics Decision Support

A new open-source converter translates next-generation sequencing variants from VCF files into FHIR Genomics reports — a foundational piece of genomics-EHR integration.

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SDOH Feb 19, 2019 · Jim Shalaby · 5 min read
The “5 Rights” of Social Determinants of Health

No single workflow can capture every social determinant. We propose a “5 Rights” framework — right info, right person, right setting, right channel, right time — for a personalized approach.

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Interoperability Jan 30, 2019 · Richard Wang · 3 min read
How to Assemble SMART on FHIR Apps in Minutes

Traditional development cycles make SMART on FHIR adoption painfully slow. Sapphire™ App Assembler uses a library of reusable widgets to compress months of work into minutes.

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CDS Oct 25, 2018 · Aziz Boxwala · 3 min read
Our Research Grant to Fight Physician Burnout

An NIA SBIR grant funds Elimu’s research into context-relevant EHR views that consolidate the data clinicians need into a single screen — cutting clicks and reducing information overload.

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CDS Oct 8, 2018 · Jim Shalaby · 2 min read
Why We Like Lab Categories, and How You Can Get Them For Free

LOINC® classes give us an intuitive set of lab categories that ease order entry and results review. Here’s why they work — and how to grab our free LOINC2000-with-categories download.

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Genomics Sep 11, 2018 · Elimu Informatics · 4 min read
The Future of Genomics Clinical Decision Support?

Wrapping a Genomic Archiving and Communication System (GACS) with an on-demand FHIR translator could unlock standards-based, scalable genomics clinical decision support.

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Interoperability Aug 15, 2018 · Aziz Boxwala · 4 min read
SMART on FHIR Apps Embedded in the EHR

A tour of CDS apps embedded in EHR workflows — from SMART Forms and the Bilirubin app to ATHENA DSS and the ASCVD Risk Calculator — and the two “super powers” they bring.

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CDS Jul 25, 2018 · Jim Shalaby · 2 min read
How to Normalize Immunizations to RxNorm… for Free!

Kicking off our Knowledge Sharing program, Elimu is releasing CVX-to-RxNorm immunization mapping tables so providers can report and analyze immunizations consistently — at no charge.

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CDS Jun 5, 2018 · Jim Shalaby · 4 min read
Semantic Normalization in EHRs: Finding the Right Needle in a Haystack

Interoperability standards alone aren’t enough to make EHR data trustworthy for analytics and CDS. Semantic normalization is the missing piece that preserves meaning across representations.

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CDS May 8, 2018 · Aziz Boxwala · 5 min read
Can DMN Be Used to Create Shareable Knowledge Artifacts for CDS?

DMN brings business-friendly decision modeling to healthcare, but shareable CDS artifacts need triggers, contexts, workflow integrations, and interventions that DMN doesn’t yet cover.

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Genomics May 4, 2018 · Elimu Informatics · 3 min read
Pharmacogenomics Clinical Decision Support: The Next EHR Decision Support Commodity

Pharmacogenomics (PGx) CDS based on FHIR and CDS Hooks is feasible today — and it addresses many of the long-standing barriers to integrating genomics into EHR workflows.

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CDS Dec 21, 2017 · Aziz Boxwala · 2 min read
CDS Forecast (Part 2): Cloudy With a Chance of FHIR

When is cloud-based clinical decision support the right call? A practical guide to prioritizing which clinical requirements to offload first.

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CDS Nov 29, 2017 · Aziz Boxwala · 3 min read
CDS Forecast (Part 1): Cloudy With a Chance of FHIR

Cloud-based CDS can dramatically lower the burden of authoring and maintaining clinical rules — and CDS Hooks plus FHIR are knocking down the integration barriers that held it back.

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Interoperability Nov 9, 2017 · Aziz Boxwala · 3 min read
FHIR: Fueling Innovation in Health IT

By bringing RESTful APIs to healthcare interoperability, HL7 FHIR is opening the doors of HIT to a whole new generation of developers, apps, and innovation.

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Company Sep 9, 2017 · Jim Shalaby · 1 min read
Why We Started Elimu Informatics

A short note on how PSMI and Meliorix came together to form Elimu Informatics — uniting decision support, clinical content, and knowledge management under one roof.

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