HHS in March or April will seek contract proposals for developing a trial implementation of the core elements of a nationwide health information network, Government Computer News reports.
HHS expects in June or July to award a contract that would incorporate the first set of interoperability standards and system certification criteria, according to John Loonsk, director of the Office of Interoperability and Standards in the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT.
The contract also will include elements of prototypes of network architectures for early forms of electronic health records, personal health records and bioterror tracking systems. The agency this year also plans to integrate activities of state and local regional health information exchanges, according to Government Computer News.
"It is the intent of the next-step [request for proposal] to bring those things together to form a collaborative and to support particularly the inter-network needs of advancing the national agenda and the nationwide health information network," Loonsk said.
In addition, Gartner in March will report to HHS on its evaluation of the four network prototypes and common interfaces (Mosquera, Government Computer News, 1/25).