Starting in late December or early January, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT will begin testing clinical information exchanges between health care providers using standards and services from NHIN Direct, Government Health IT reports.
NHIN Direct is a streamlined form of the Nationwide Health Information Network and is designed to allow health care providers to share secure messages in one-to-one exchanges with other health care providers.
The platform also will allow health care providers to conduct the health data exchanges required under the first stage of "meaningful use." Under the 2009 federal economic stimulus package, health care providers who demonstrate meaningful use of electronic health records will qualify for incentive payments.
Upcoming Testing
During a Health IT Standards Committee meeting on Wednesday, NHIN Direct project director Arien Malec said that draft technical descriptions of the standards for exchanging messages will be ready in November. He said health care organizations currently are preparing to test the NHIN Direct data exchange in seven pilot projects around the U.S.
Three of the testing organizations will use the exchange for patient referrals and care transitions. The three groups are:
- MedAllies, a New York-based EHR provider;
- Redwood MedNet, a Northern California-based health information exchange; and
- The Rhode Island Quality Institute, a collaboration of state organizations that promote EHRs.
The Rhode Island group also will use NHIN Direct standards to send health care provider data to the institute's quality registry.
Two other pilot projects will involve:
- CareSpark -- a Tennessee-based health information exchange -- which will support care coordination between the Department of Veterans Affairs and private clinics; and
- VisionShare -- a health care software developer -- which plans to connect health care providers with state immunization registries.
Malec said the Standards Committee will evaluate the effectiveness of the pilot programs in March (Mosquera, Government Health IT, 10/28).