The Nationwide Health Information Network (NHIN) is being developed to provide a secure, nationwide, interoperable health information infrastructure that will connect providers, consumers, and others involved in supporting health and healthcare. This critical part of the national health IT agenda will enable health information to follow the consumer, be available for clinical decision making, and support appropriate use of healthcare information beyond direct patient care so as to improve health.
The NHIN seeks to achieve these goals by:
- Developing capabilities for standards-based, secure data exchange nationwide
- Improving the coordination of care information among hospitals, laboratories, physicians offices, pharmacies, and other providers
- Ensuring appropriate information is available at the time and place of care
- Ensuring that consumers’ health information is secure and confidential
- Giving consumers new capabilities for managing and controlling their personal health records as well as providing access to their health information from electronic health records (EHRs) and other sources
- Reducing risks from medical errors and supporting the delivery of appropriate, evidence-based medical care
- Lowering healthcare costs resulting from inefficiencies, medical errors, and incomplete patient information
To promote a more effective marketplace, greater competition, and increased choice through accessibility to accurate information on healthcare costs, quality, and outcomes, the Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) is advancing the NHIN as a “network of networks” which will connect diverse entities that need to exchange health information, such as state and regional health information exchanges (HIEs), integrated delivery systems, health plans that provide care, personally controlled health records, Federal agencies, and other networks as well as the systems to which they, in turn, connect.
ONC is advancing the development of the NHIN using a three-phased approach:
Background & Scope of Activites
The Nationwide Health Information Network (NHIN) is built upon a core set of capabilities to enable nationwide information exchange encompassing a diverse set of organizations, technologies and approaches. Core capabilities include:
- Ability to find and retrieve healthcare information within and between health information exchanges and other organizations
- Ability to deliver a summarized patient record to support patient care and to support the patient’s health.
- Ability to support consumer preferences regarding the exchange of his or her information, including the ability to choose not to participate in the NHIN
- Support secure information exchange
- Support of a common trust agreement that establishes the obligations and assurances to which all NHIN participants agree
- Ability to match patients to their data without a national patient identifier
- Support of harmonized standards, which have been developed by voluntary consensus standards bodies for exchange of health information among all such entities and networks.
The core capabilities of the NHIN establish an interoperable infrastructure among distinct networks and systems that allows for different approaches and implementations, while ensuring secure information exchange as needed for patient care and population health.
In addition to the core capabilities, the Trial Implementations of the NHIN also supports a set of use cases as recommended by the American Health Information Community (AHIC) in order to address key priority areas, including:
- Emergency Responder-Electronic Health Record
- Electronic Health Record – Lab Results
- Medication Management
- Consumer Empowerment-Consumer Access to Clinical Information
- Consumer Empowerment- Registration and Medication History
- Quality
- Biosurveillance
