Reference
Glossary
Plain-English definitions of the healthcare data, interoperability, and quality terms behind HDIM. Standards definitions are general overviews, not official specifications.
The HDIM platform
- Data in motion
- Processing healthcare data as events arrive rather than in batches. Evaluating measures on each event lets a care gap surface as it happens. See Data in Motion vs. Data at Rest.
- Data Quality Monitor (DQM)
- HDIM's entry tier: an on-premises data-quality trust authority that scores inbound and outbound feeds across five dimensions and gates feed/identity readiness before measurement runs. Try the feed-grader.
- Data Motion Platform
- The customer-boundary runtime that runs care-gap detection and HEDIS quality workflows on DQM-validated signals, under identity and consent controls, inside the customer environment.
- Atlas Nexus
- The cloud operator-evidence tier. It ingests operator-safe aggregates so operators can triage cross-customer evidence without seeing patient-level PHI.
- Operator-safe
- Describes outbound data engineered so operators get useful signal without patient-level PHI: deny-list enforced, de-identified, and subject to a small-cell floor.
- Small-cell floor (k ≥ 11)
- A privacy control that suppresses any aggregate cell representing fewer than 11 individuals, so small groups cannot be singled out. HDIM enforces k ≥ 11 on operator-safe outputs.
Data quality & identity
- Five data-quality dimensions
- Completeness, conformance, accuracy, consistency, and timeliness — the axes DQM scores a feed on. See them scored.
- Identity resolution / Master Patient Index (MPI)
- Determining whether records from different sources refer to the same person. Without it, population-level questions cannot be answered reliably.
- De-identification
- Removing or transforming identifiers so data no longer identifies an individual. Under HIPAA this is achieved via Safe Harbor or Expert Determination.
- Pseudonymization
- Replacing direct identifiers with surrogate keys. Pseudonymized data can often still be re-identified, so it is generally treated as protected — distinct from formal de-identification.
Quality measurement
- HEDIS
- The Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set — a widely used set of quality measures maintained by NCQA. Explore the measures. (HEDIS® is a registered trademark of NCQA.)
- Care gap
- A difference between recommended care and the care a patient has actually received — for example, a screening that is due but not on record.
- Numerator / denominator
- A measure’s denominator is the eligible population that remains after exclusions; the numerator is those who met the measure’s criteria. Eligible patients not in the numerator represent open care gaps.
- Initial population & exclusions
- The initial population is everyone a measure could apply to; exclusions remove those for whom it should not count. Both shape who is actually measured.
- Star Ratings
- CMS’s quality rating program for Medicare Advantage and Part D plans. Many Star measures draw on HEDIS, so measure performance affects plan ratings.
- CQL (Clinical Quality Language)
- A standard, human-readable language for expressing clinical quality logic, used to define how a measure is evaluated against patient data.
Interoperability
- FHIR (R4)
- Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources — the HL7 standard (Release 4) for exchanging healthcare data as structured resources. See FHIR-Native vs. Retrofitted.
- HL7
- Health Level Seven International, the standards body behind widely used healthcare messaging standards (HL7 v2 messaging and the FHIR standard).
- ADT (Admit/Discharge/Transfer)
- A class of HL7 messages that communicate patient movement events. ADT feeds are a common real-time source for event-driven evaluation.
- HIE / TEFCA / QHIN
- A Health Information Exchange moves data between organizations. TEFCA is a US framework for nationwide exchange; QHINs are the networks that connect under it.
Educational overview. Standards (FHIR, HEDIS, CQL, TEFCA) are defined generally; consult the official specifications for authoritative detail. HEDIS® is a registered trademark of NCQA.