The Future of Interoperability is at CommonWell Today

The TEFCA roadmap builds on the framework CommonWell has already successfully developed and delivered to the market nationwide.

What is TEFCA and Why CommonWell is Ready for it

The Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement℠ (TEFCA℠) by the Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) aims to create a national backbone of organizations with record location capabilities, called Qualified Health Information Networks (QHINs) that will connect to each other to improve nationwide data exchange. Companies looking to connect to the nationwide network proposed by TEFCA will have the opportunity to join one of these Designated QHINs. CommonWell has applied to be one of them and is currently going through the testing phase. TEFCA aims to create a single on ramp to clinical data exchange, so that health care organizations can participate within a QHIN and get access to clinical data across all of the QHINs in TEFCA.

CommonWell has been building and scaling a nationwide health data exchange network using a highly efficient Record Locator Service since 2013. With more than 70 health IT member companies, ongoing collaboration with the ONC, and a scalable infrastructure CommonWell is fully prepared for the next phase of interoperability.

What Sets CommonWell Apart

Why should you choose CommonWell?

The numbers speak for themselves. With 34,000 provider orgs connected, more than 226 million unique individuals served and more than 6 billion records retrieved on the network—the scale at CommonWell is unmatched. This scale is already available today within the CommonWell network and members that connect get immediate access and will benefit from ongoing growth both internally and with external frameworks.

Uniquely Qualified

The architectural concept espoused by TEFCA builds on the approach that the Alliance has already successfully delivered to the market nationwide. The combination of a Master Person Index (MPI), Record Locator Service (RLS) and Data Broker together allow for scalable interoperability at a national level. Meet Susan to learn how this works today.

Diverse Membership

Our diverse membership–which represents more than 20 care settings–illustrates that interoperability across different care settings is growing and will continue to grow with TEFCA.

Record Locator Service + Scale

Our high functioning RLS finds all records associated with a patient, no matter where the care was delivered, eliminating the need for geo-searching and guessing to streamline access.

Commitment to Innovation

Our commitment to serving a broad scope of interoperability needs. CommonWell has evolved over the years and with that has come a new chapter, with a renewed focus to bring innovation to interoperability. Learn more about our new partnership with our technical service provider here.

Community Building

Our proven record of community-building contributes to industry momentum and innovation. Our members work together to solve problems that impact us all. Read about our FHIR Connectathon to get inspired.

Vendor Neutral

A vendor-neutral trade alliance focused on interoperability for the common good. We remain committed to working alongside interoperability partners to continue to break down silos of data. Learn more about the Alliance.

July 29, 2022

"I believe we are only at the tip of the iceberg when it comes data integration at the individual patient and population health level. TEFCA represents an opportunity to build the next stage of interoperability that will coordinate care nationwide. We believe we need to run—not walk—to build it."
Paul Wilder, Executive Director, CommonWell Health Alliance

July 21, 2022

"CommonWell has been consistently aligned with TEFCA since it was first announced. As a national network it’s been our goal to be an on ramp for connecting care providers. We’ve shown this by becoming a Carequality implementer reaching out to other trade partners outside of our immediate network. When we launched the CommonWell Connector model we really doubled down on this effort to extend access to health IT companies that might not have previously had the ability to connect to the network."
Liz Buckle, Director of Product, CommonWell Health Alliance

Abhinay Rao Penugonda
January 26, 2024

"We're excited to join a powerful force in the industry and be part of the solution to provide seamless data exchange in healthcare for the benefit of patients and providers across the county," said Abhinay Penugonda, CEO of ModuleMD. "We did a thorough review of interoperability partners with scale and a robust roadmap for the future including TEFCA and CommonWell was an obvious choice for us."