With a more urgent timeline for data sharing across the country, the government is now rethinking the Nationwide Health Information Network – the NHIN.
The NHIN, a federal interoperability initiative begun in 2004, must now align itself with the newer and more urgent timeline established in the HITECH part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, passed in February 2009, members of the Health
Information Technology Policy Committee said at a meeting of the panel on Jan. 13, 2010.
The Health IT Policy Committee adopted the NHIN workgroup's recommendation for a "conceptual" framework for the NIHN and what the NHIN should expect from federal agencies. The members don't know yet how those recommendations will be turned into actions and deadlines.
David Blumenthal, the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology and chairman of the Health IT Policy Committee, said the group would continue to expand its vision for the NHIN at upcoming meetings.
"The NHIN was developed before HITECH," he noted. "Is this sufficient, or should we be thinking more broadly?"
Blumenthal urged the committee to think of ways the government could promote meaningful use as part of the NHIN. "If there are new investments we have to make, new aspirations we need to communicate, we have no time to lose,” said Blumenthal. Providers who expect to receive bonuses under ARRA must demonstrate meaningful use of healthcare IT by 2011.
The NHIN workgroup chairman, David Lansky, said the NHIN should enable the broadest range of providers to exchange information to achieve meaningful use and enable consumers to be able to access their health information. It should also provide access to states and other organizations that support providers.
The goals the committee approved for future of the NHIN included:
* The federal government should focus on the minimum standards, policies and services needed for foundational exchange components to further meaningful use in the near-term.
* NHIN policies, standards and services should be structured so that intermediaries can provide required services for private and secure routing of health information.
* The federal government should work with stakeholders to improve and leverage directories for the NHIN.
* The federal government should define a core set of policies for the interoperation of trusted directories.
* The NHIN should build upon existing federal standards, policies and practices for authentication and identity proofing.
In August and September, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT awarded $21 million in three new contracts for work on the NHIN.
“These pilots assess not only the technology and standards associated with the Nationwide Health Information Network, but also provide a test-bed to evaluate the interaction of all those elements required for secure interoperability among healthcare stakeholders,” said Michael Leff, director, Lockheed Martin Health Information Management Solutions, which was awarded two contracts in August, worth over $9 million. “This is the equivalent of taking a new medical therapy out of a controlled clinical trial and assessing the value of that therapy in a real-world setting.”
ONC officials say they plan to give the NHIN a "real world" test by the end of 2010 or beginning of 2011.
