States' roles will shift in new NHIN landscape

"What is the motivation for providers to join a health information exchange if all they need is NHIN Direct to help them achieve meaningful use?"

The question was put to Dr. Doug Fridsma, the director of standards and interoperability in the Office of the National Coordinator by an audience member who had just heard Fridsma describe ONC's new plan to offer providers the tools to perform a series of basic health information transactions over the Internet. The project, dubbed "NHIN Direct", had been discussed in bits and pieces before last week's Healthcare Information and Management System Society's (HIMSS) annual conference in Atlanta. But the session featuring Fridsma, along with newly named NHIN Direct project manager Arien Malec, was the first time they had discussed the idea in any detail before a general audience.