USA-wide information network advances - path to inter-operational production set

The USA's 5th Nationwide Health Information Network Forum, held late December 2008, in Washington DC, showcased the groundbreaking work of  the Nationwide Health Information Network trial implementations which  began more than 14 months ago. This work, carried out by members of a  public-private "NHIN Cooperative," lays the foundation that will serve  as the next step toward secure nationwide interoperable health  information exchange. By making information available when and where it  is needed, nationwide exchange of such data promises to increase health  care quality, reducing both cost and medical errors.

Security of information and protection of privacy are essential to  information exchange. In his keynote address to open the forum, US  Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt announced a privacy and  security doctrine, made up of eight principles, and a complete tool kit  to guide efforts to ensure consumers have protected access to their  health information (Privacy and Security Framework). Secretary Leavitt  emphasized the relationship between these privacy and security measures  and the groundbreaking technological advances demonstrated by the NHIN.

As of October 2007, several forces converged to create a broadly-based  NHIN Cooperative. The HHS Department awarded contracts totaling $22.5  million to nine health information exchange organizations to begin trial  implementations of the NHIN. Federal chief information officers  recognized the importance of exchanging health information. As a result,  the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Department of Defense, the  Social Security Administration and the Indian Health Service joined the  NHIN Cooperative. Since that time, the Centers for Disease Control and  Prevention, the National Institutes of Health's National Cancer  Institute and six additional grantees from the private sector also  joined the effort.