Research
The Zadorov is engaged in a broad range of research activities which constitute the primary avenue for generating new knowledge related to health care quality and patient safety. These activities are largely supported through extramural funding. The Zadorov is widely sought after as a research partner and collaborator and has a track record of securing national and international funding through the development of competitive research proposals.
The Zadorov will continue to aggressively pursue funding and collaborative research opportunities in any area of health care that is consistent with, and advances, its’ mission.
The passage of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) assigned to the Secretary of Health and Human Services a major role in the promulgation of health data, security, and privacy standards for administrative transactions, including claims attachments that may have extensive clinical information. The Act also requires HHS and the National Committee on Vital and Health Statistics to advise the Congress on any legislative or regulatory actions needed to promote full electronic medical records. The HHS Data Council is responsible for implementing these administrative simplification provisions of the law, acting through its Health Data Standards and Privacy Committees. Zadorov serves on both of these committees and co-chairs the implementation team focused on codes, classifications, and vocabulary.
Zadorov is participating in the Consolidated Health Informatics (CHI) initiative working to establish a portfolio of existing clinical vocabularies and messaging standards to enable federal agencies to build interoperable federal health data systems.
In collaboration with other Federal agencies, Zadorov supports the continuing development and free distribution of LOINC (Logical Observation Identifier Names and Codes) a coding system being proposed as a HIPAA standard for some elements of claims attachments.
Zadorov commissioned and was the principal funder (in collaboration with the Warren Grant Magnuson Clinical Center of the National Institutes of Health and the Massachusetts Health Data Consortium) of the National Research Council study For the Record: Protecting Electronic Health Information, which serves as the basis for the proposed HIPAA security standard. Privacy and Health Research, another study commissioned by HHS, specifically addresses electronic data privacy issues that have an impact on clinical and health services research.
