As the HL7 Program Management Office (PMO) moves into its second year, the team is building on a successful 2025 marked by improved collaboration, efficiency and process improvement. The PMO continues to play a central role in coordinating HL7’s major government-funded programs and internal initiatives, ensuring programs remain in compliance, within scope and aligned with HL7’s mission to create and advance standards that improve healthcare interoperability.
“Our emphasis this year is on performance tracking, enhanced reporting and proactive communication,” said Becca Parsons, PMP, Senior Program Director and head of the PMO. “By providing better visibility into workgroup health, risks, and deliverables, we help leadership make informed decisions and ensure the success of HL7’s complex, multi-stakeholder programs.”
In 2025, the Program Management Office completed comprehensive process mapping, cross-training, and process improvement initiatives that streamlined operations across multiple contracts and programs. These efforts increased efficiency and allowed HL7 to absorb one full-time equivalent (FTE) position—saving costs while maintaining the same level of high-quality program support. A special thank you goes to Lynn Laakso for her assistance to other departments throughout the process mapping initiative.
Driving Impact Through Cooperative Agreement and Contract Oversight
The PMO continues to provide oversight and coordination for HL7’s federally funded initiatives, including the C-CDA and FHIR Maturation Cooperative Agreement and the US Realm Standards Development Contract, which concluded in September 2025. That work played a critical role in aligning HL7 standards with national interoperability priorities and supporting timely implementation of regulatory requirements.
Building on that success, HL7 was recently awarded a new 5-year contract—USCDI+ Quality Standard—which will focus on advancing HL7 standards and tools to support the U.S. Core Data for Interoperability Plus initiative focused on Quality Standards. This new effort will be managed by Anne Wizauer, CAPM, leveraging her extensive experience coordinating standards projects and managing complex deliverables.
Under these efforts, HL7 teams are:
- Advancing maturity of the FHIR standard by supporting the community as it tests, advances and matures the specification
- Aligning CDA and FHIR standards to USCDI and USCDI+ regulations
- Enhancing HL7’s FHIR publishing tools and terminology infrastructure
- Strengthening stakeholder engagement and educational outreach through training and Implementation-a-thons
These initiatives ensure that HL7 continues to deliver timely, high-quality standards and infrastructure to support both industry innovation and public health priorities.
Looking Ahead
In the coming year, the Program Management Office will expand its impact by enhancing HL7’s data collection, evaluation and reporting capabilities to better measure program outcomes and work group health. The PMO is developing a more automated and data-driven approach to performance tracking, using analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) tools to streamline data gathering, identify trends and deliver actionable insights. These improvements will strengthen transparency and decision-making while reducing manual effort across teams.
A second key priority will be operationalizing the newly awarded USCDI+ contract. The PMO will focus on establishing efficient processes, performance metrics and communication pathways to ensure successful execution from the start. Together, these initiatives will advance HL7’s ability to monitor organizational health, optimize operations and demonstrate measurable value to stakeholders and partners.
