The Health IT Policy Committee's Nationwide Health Information Network work group is working on elements of a so-called "trust fabric" for the exchange of electronic health information in an effort to increase confidence in the use of NHIN, Government Health IT reports.
The NHIN work group developed broad recommendations on what would qualify as trusted health information exchange through "NHIN Direct" -- a simplified version of NHIN standards and services for securely sharing information through the Internet.
The work group recommended that:
- Participants in the exchange comply with HIPAA, as well as existing state laws on patient privacy; and
- Trust requirements are monitored at different exchange points by private sector and government organizations.
The work group will deliver its final recommendations to the Policy Committee on April 21, according David Lansky -- chair of the NHIN work group and CEO of the Pacific Business Group on Health (Mosquera, Government Health IT, 4/14).