On Wednesday, the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society's Electronic Health Record Association sent a letter recommending that the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT focus on the fundamentals of establishing a governance model for the Nationwide Health Information Network, Health Data Management reports.
Background
NwHIN is a national health IT infrastructure that aims to help health care providers exchange data.
In May, ONC issued a request for information on the creation of a governance structure for NwHIN. According to an ONC presentation, the NwHIN governance mechanism will include rules on technical, business practice, privacy and security requirements to establish a common trust framework for the exchange (iHealthBeat, 6/5).
HIMSS EHR Association Letter
In the letter, the HIMSS EHR Association wrote that ONC's RFI was too focused on proposing conditions for trusted exchange, called CTEs.
The letter stated, "We suggest, rather, that the initial focus should be on the governance model itself -- how to establish and sunset CTEs, validation and enforcement, etc. -- rather than the initial set of CTEs and their maintenance."
The HIMSS EHR Association also recommended that ONC:
- Establish a public-private entity to oversee the process of creating CTEs and conducting pilot programs;
- Pursue a more flexible approach to the creation of CTEs;
- Eliminate privacy and security requirements for certain CTEs;
- Clarify the definition of a "network validated entity"; and
- Consider use cases that include query exchanges as well as directed exchanges (Goedert, Health Data Management, 6/21).