Officials at the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT have been pushing metadata standards as a way to generate higher levels of information exchange in the second stage of meaningful use rules. However, one group is saying this move may be premature.

The National Committee on Vital and Health Statistics, a federal advisory board, sent a letter to the ONC urging officials to delay any moves to incorporate metadata standards into the next round of meaningful use rules.

The letter states that metadata is currently not widely used by physicians using EHR systems. In order to include standards in stage 2 of meaningful use, the ONC would need to create the standards and get EHR vendors to implement them, all with little testing or evaluation.

"We believe that it is premature to start the rulemaking process for metadata standards without having a better understanding of the current level of maturity of those standards, assessment of the degree to which they have been tested or even used in the industry, a careful analysis of possible unintended consequences and, more importantly, a policy framework that defines their use," the letter states.

The Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society, the College of Healthcare Information Managers and the American Hospital Association have also opposed metadata standards.