This NHIN uses supporting technologies, standards, laws, policies, programs, and practices that enable users to communicate and exchange health information in a way that retains its intended meaning. It is built on a core set of capabilities that ensures secure nationwide information exchange as needed for patient care and population health.
These core capabilities include:
- The ability to find and retrieve healthcare information within and between health information exchanges and other organizations;
- The ability to deliver a summarized patient record to support patient care and the patient’s health;
- The ability to support consumer preferences regarding the exchange of his or her information, including the ability to choose not to participate in NHIN;
- The support of secure information exchange;
- The support of a common trust agreement that establishes the obligations and assurances to which all NHIN participants agree;
- The ability to match participants to their data without a national patient identifier; and
- The support of harmonized standards, which have been developed by voluntary consensus standards bodies for exchange of health information among all such entities and networks.2
The NHIN framework is also being explored as a vehicle for other uses, including EHR and emergency responder data exchange, EHR and lab data exchange, medication management, quality, biosurveillance, and consumer empowerment.
The NHIN has achieved several milestones in recent months. With the development of CONNECT—an open-source software that acts as an on-ramp to the information exchange highway—organizations can now use the NHIN to connect to each other and share data.
In February 2009, the CONNECT software gateway was used for the first time when the Social Security Administration began receiving live patient data from MedVirginia through the NHIN. In most cases, NHIN users could get the patient data necessary to adjudicate applications for disability payments through the system in a matter of minutes, compared with six to eight weeks with paperwork.
Stay Tuned
By providing the capability to effectively and efficiently move clinical information among disparate health information systems while maintaining the meaning of the information being exchanged, a HIE is a key element to building a strong foundation for efforts to improve the U.S. healthcare system.
In next month’s “Practice Page,” we will explore opportunities for your practice to embrace the electronic exchange of healthcare information and the importance of engaging patients in the process.
For more information on health information technology in your practice, contact Itara Barnes at [email protected].
References
- eHealth Initiative Releases Results From 2009 Survey on Health Information Exchange. Available at: www.ehealthinitiative.org/ehealth-initiative-releases-results-2009-survey-health-information-exchange.html. Accessed December 10, 2009.
- Department of Health and Human Services. Nationwide Health Information Network. Available at: http://healthit.hhs. gov/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=1142&parentname=CommunityPage&parentid=1&mode=2&in_hi_userid=10741&cached=true. Accessed December 10, 2009.
