Health IT committee streamlines approach to NHIN

Federal health information technology policymakers OKed a set of recommendations to recast the National Health Information Network (NHIN) as a set of broader, more practical services designed to help providers meet fast approaching deadlines for qualifying as meaningful users of health IT. I

n a Jan 13th meeting of the Health and Human Service Department's Health IT Policy Committee, experts said that the original plan for the NHIN, conceived almost a decade ago, may no longer be equal to the current demands on healthcare providers to digitize their practices. Instead, policymakers recommended a new focus on the NHIN as a more basic set of services designed to expedite meaningful use, including an emphasis on 'push' transactions, electronic directories, a reliance on secure transport services via the Internet and practices for authenticating information handling.

Dr. David Blumenthal, the national health IT coordinator, conveyed a sense of urgency in moving ahead with the new framework. "Given the timeframes to meaningful use, if there are new investments, new policies or aspirations we have to verbalize and communicate, we have no time to lose," he said.