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The Gravity Project aims to develop consensus national standards for social determinants of health
RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C. — Daniel J. Vreeman, PT, DPT, MS, FACMI, Senior Clinical Data Standards Lead at RTI International, a nonprofit research institute, has been named as the Technical Director for the Gravity Project.
The Gravity Project convenes stakeholders across the health and human services ecosystem through an open process that develops and tests consensus-based standards for exchanging social determinants of health (SDOH) data across systems and settings.
Together, this community collectively craft representative data sets for each social risk domain using standardized terminologies and advances the technical aspects of interoperable exchange of SDOH data with exchange mechanisms based on open standards, including HL7® Fast Health Interoperability Resource (FHIR®). The Gravity Project is a member of the HL7 FHIR ACCELERATOR™ Program.
"I am delighted to join the Gravity Project and look forward to helping foster a diverse and welcoming community that produces the functional and technical specifications we need for systems to share data in a principled way towards the vision of people experiencing full physical, mental, and social health," said Vreeman.
“We are thrilled to welcome Dan to the Gravity Project team,” said Evelyn Gallego, CEO of EMI Advisors LLC, and Program Manager for the Gravity Project. “Dan brings unique expertise in terminology, content, and transport standards development that is critical for our work. He will also play a key role in helping us bridge interoperability efforts across the health and human services sectors that extend beyond HL7.”
Dr. Vreeman's work aims to create a global health ecosystem where data are available with open standards that unlock the potential for information systems and applications to improve decision-making and care. He is an interoperability expert who has developed internationally adopted health data standards, implemented them in multi-institutional health IT systems, evaluated their use, and provided strategic advice to interoperability initiatives of numerous U.S. federal agencies and national eHealth efforts in several other countries.
Vreeman completed a post-doctoral fellowship in medical informatics at the Regenstrief Institute, earned a Doctor of Physical Therapy from Duke University School of Medicine, a Masters in Clinical Research from Indiana University, and a bachelor's degree in Biological Sciences from Cornell University.
From 2006 to 2019, Dr. Vreeman was the Director, LOINC and Health Data Standards with the Regenstrief Institute, Inc. and was the inaugural Regenstrief–McDonald Scholar in Data Standards at the Indiana University School of Medicine. His work has been recognized through notable awards, including being elected as fellow of the American College of Medical Informatics, the Distinguished Alumni Award from the Duke University Doctor of Physical Therapy Program, the Technology and Innovation Award from the American Physical Therapy Association Health Policy and Administration Section.
