TEFCA Governance SOP Released Today

Blog, RCE News

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January 9, 2025

Today, The Sequoia Project, in its role as the Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement™ (TEFCA™) Recognized Coordinating Entity® (RCE®) released the TEFCA Governance SOP. This milestone SOP marks the transition to self-governance of TEFCA Exchange, a reflection of how TEFCA has matured across one year production exchange.

The TEFCA Governance SOP details the creation of three permanent governing bodies, including a Governing Council, QHIN Caucus, and Participant and Subparticipant Caucus. Importantly, it also establishes a mechanism for additional engagement through the creation of Advisory Groups. The RCE and the Governing Council may choose to use Advisory Groups in a variety of ways including, but not limited to, giving feedback on possible changes to the Common Agreement, the QTF, or an SOP; or providing feedback on new Exchange Purposes.

Following today’s release, the interim TEFCA Transitional Council will finalize the establishment of the caucuses. The caucuses will then vote on the nominees for the Governing Council in the coming weeks. These new governing bodies will replace the Transitional Council. The existing TEFCA Cybersecurity Council will continue on as a permanent group.

The RCE thanks the Assistant Secretary of Technology Policy, and the pioneering Qualified Health Information Networks® (QHINS) and their Partcipants and Subparticipants for their collaboration and diligence leading us to this new phase of self-governance. The RCE looks forward to working with the TEFCA community to further advance nation-wide exchange of health information.

The next TEFCA RCE monthly informational call has been extended to 90 minutes and is scheduled for January 21 from 12:00-1:30 p.m. ET.

Thank you!

We appreciate the thousands of individuals who have joined our public calls and submitted feedback on this groundbreaking framework for nationwide interoperability.

About The Sequoia Project

The Sequoia Project is a non-profit, 501c3, public-private collaborative chartered to advance implementation of secure, interoperable nationwide health information exchange. The Sequoia Project focuses on solving real-world interoperability challenges and brings together public and private stakeholders in forums, such as the Interoperability Matters cooperative, to overcome barriers. The Sequoia Project is the Recognized Coordinating Entity (RCE) for the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT’s Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement (TEFCA). In this role, The Sequoia Project developed and will implement and maintain TEFCA’s Common Agreement component and operationalize the Qualified Health Information Network (QHIN) designation and monitoring process.