NHIN Direct launched at HIMSS10;
Simpler data exchange for physicians and consumers
Office of National Coordinator (ONC) for Health IT launched NHIN Direct Wiki and blog at HIMSS10 in Atlanta on March 1, 2010. NHIN Direct is being led by Arien Malec, most recently with RelayHealth, who started formally with ONC on March 1, 2010.

Arien Malec

ONC “launched ‘NHIN Direct’ as a simpler way for physicians and consumers to exchange health information than through implementation of the full-blown Nationwide Health Information Network” as reported by Mary Mosquera, Goverment HealthIT, on Feb 26, 2010.

The remainder of this post (and Malec’s head shot) were pulled from NHIN Direct Web site Wiki and blog on March 4, 2010.

“NHIN Direct is the set of standards, policies and services that enable simple, secure transport of health information between authorized care providers. NHIN Direct enables standards-based health information exchange in support of core Stage 1 Meaningful Use measures, including communication of summary care records, referrals, discharge summaries and other clinical documents in support of continuity of care and medication reconciliation, and communication of laboratory results to providers.”

NHIN Direct Process Wiki
NHIN Direct Web site and Wiki “collects the User Stories and Specifications and Service Descriptions for the NHIN Direct project. Once collected and organized, these stories, specifications and service descriptions will then serve as the basis for exploratory implementation work and pilot projects. The objective is to have pilot projects demonstrating simple, direct exchange during 2010, leading to widespread adoption by 2011. See the Overall Process page for more details.”

NHIN Direct
NHIN FAQ
NHIN Direct Blog

Why NHIN Direct?
“There is a need to extend the NHIN to support a broader set of participants and providers through a simple, standards-based, widely deployed and well-supported method for providers to securely transport health information using the Internet in support of the core Meaningful Use outcomes and measures.”

What is the relationship between NHIN Direct and the currently descrived NHIN Architecture?
In short, “NHIN Direct and the current NHIN model support different use cases and are coequal in a system of robust nationwide health information exchange.”

“The currently described NHIN Architecture (see the NHIN Inventory of Tools for more detail) describes a method for universal patient lookup and document discovery and exchange between National Health Information Organizations, including Federal providers such as the Veterans Health Administration, Department of Defense Military Health System, RHIOs, and large IDNs . NHIN Direct supports cases of pushed communication between providers, hospitals, laboratories, and other health settings of care.
The current members of the NHIN Collaborative will be able to support the NHIN Direct model, and providers and enabling organizations for NHIN Direct will scale to support to support the discovery and exchange use cases. Both models are required and will be in use at the same time for the same participants, depending on the information exchange needs.”

HIMSS10 Blumenthal Keynote: “Wind is at our back”
Joseph Conn, ModernHealthcare.com, reported from HIMSS10 convention on March 3, 2010 in Atlanta, Georgia, National Coordinator for Health IT “David Blumenthal’s keynote speech this morning at the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society convention in Atlanta was in part a personal introduction, and then in turn pep talk, recitation of recent federal achievements and preview of the work ahead.”

CMIO Conference News reported reported March 3, 2010 that Blumenthal spoke to a capacity crowd and said “You have been leaders and we want you to continue to be leaders and we will follow your lead,” and cited ONC’s accomplishments.

Mark McGraw reported on March 3, 2010 in an ADVANCE Perspective blog from HIMSS10 on Blumenthal’s listing of accomplishments of ONC in past ten months, and quoted Blumenthal who said “We spent the first year developing policy. Now we begin the process of implementation.”

Reporting from Atlanta, Paul McCloskey wrote on March 3, 2010 in Government HealthIT, “Dr. David Blumenthal introduced himself to the IT community yesterday in a talk in which he told the story of his first experiences using health IT and shared his convictions about its future,”  laying “out goals for a plan that has no precedent ‘in the history of healthcare.’”

ONC adds Bio of Chief Privacy Officer Joy Pritts to Web site

Joy Pritts
Chief Privacy Officer
“Joy Pritts joined the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) in February 2010 as Chief Privacy Officer. Ms. Pitts provides critical advice to the Secretary and the National Coordinator in developing and implementing ONC’s HITECH privacy and security programs.

“Prior to joining ONC, Ms. Pritts was on the faculty at Georgetown University where she held a joint appointment as a Senior Scholar with the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law and as a Research Associate Professor with the Health Policy Institute. Her work has focused on the critical issues surrounding the privacy of health information and patient access to medical records at both the federal and state levels. She has written extensively on such topics as the HIPAA Privacy Rule, federal alcohol and substance abuse confidentiality laws, and the confidentiality of health information in research. She has worked closely with national consumer organizations and federal policymakers on ensuring the protection of health information. Ms. Pritts has most recently participated in a number of federal HIT initiatives including serving on the Technical Advisory Panel for the multi-state Health Information Security and Privacy Collaborative (HISPC) and as a board member of the National Governors Association’s State Alliance for e-Health.

“Ms. Pritts holds a law degree from Case Western Reserve University School of Law, and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Oberlin College.”

See previous e-Healthcare Marketing post on Joy Pritt.

Tomorrow’s Technology Challenges — Listening Session by ONC
Tuesday, March 2, 4:00 pm
Office of National Coordinator (ONC) will host a  listening session at HIMSS10 Atlanta on Tuesday afternoon, March 2 from 4:00 pm to 5:00 pm. Session will be moderated by ONC Chief Scientific Officer Charles Friedman, who until recently was the ONC Deputy Director, and Wil Yu from the Office of Chief Scientist. Meeting will be held in Georgia Ballroom 3 in Building C of the Georgia World Congress Center.  This follows the ONC Town Hall

ONC Town Hall @HIMSS10: Implementing HITECH :
Next Steps to Adoption and Meaningful Use of Health IT
Tuesday, March 2, 2:15 am
2:15 pm to 3:45 pm: Georgia Ballroom 3 in Building C of GWCC
Moderator: Farzad Mostashari, Senior Advisor to National Coordinator
Panel:    
–Charles Friedman, PhD, Chief Scientific Officer
–Chris Muir, Senior Program Analyst
–Ned Ellington, Program Manager, Health IT Research Center
–Doug Fridsma, MD, Acting Director, Office of Standards & Interoperability
–Jodi Daniel, DIrector, Office of Policy and Planning

ONC‘s Listing of their events at HIMSS10

ONC to Announce NHIN, Demonstrate Communities CONNECTing to NHIN
These announcements about events at HIMSS10 Atlanta were posted on ONC Health IT BUzz Blog on March 1, 2010.
“NHIN Direct will be announced at HIMSS. Be sure to attend the Education Session ‘Nationwide Health Information Network – 2010′ on Wednesday, March 3 at 1pm in Georgia Ballroom 3. Doug Fridsma, Acting Director, Office of Standards and Interoperating will unveil an expanded and new vision for NHIN. Also, we have a brief presentation in the Interoperability Showcase Tuesday at 11:30 and others in showcase that would also be of interest.”

ONC at HIMSS: Communities CONNECTing to the NHIN
“This week, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC) is sponsoring a series of demonstrations at the HIMSS Interoperability Showcase that illustrate innovative efforts to achieve progress toward secure, nationwide health information exchange across providers and jurisdictions.

“The ONC and the Federal Health Architecture (FHA) showcase will feature 25 demonstrations that involve 42 organizations. These organizations illustrate broad uses of the Nationwide Health Information Network (NHIN), a set of standards, services, and policies that enable the secure exchange of health information over the internet.  The demonstrations also highlight the use of CONNECT, an open source NHIN gateway that was developed by the FHA program for organizations wanting to securely exchange health information using NHIN constructs.  Demonstrations are grouped into four areas that align with key health outcome policy priorities:

• Improving Quality, Safety, Efficiency and Reducing Health Disparities
• Improving Care Coordination
• Engaging Patients and Families in their Health Care
• Improving Population and Public Health

“Examples of demonstrations include:

• Enhancing Wounded Warrior Care — a demo supported by the Department of Defense, the Veteran’s Health Administration and Kaiser Permanente. The organizations illustrate how data exchange using the NHIN can support continuity of care for wounded warriors.

• Supporting Midwestern Grandparents on Vacation — a demo supported by three health information exchanges (HIEs):   HealthBridge (a large urban Cincinnati HIE), Thayer County Health Services (a southeast Nebraska community HIE), and Redwood MedNet (a rural California HIE). Together, the HIEs exhibit how they’ve used the CONNECT toolkit to enable the exchange of electronic medication and diagnostic health data for grandparents from Nebraska as they travel across the country to visit their grandchildren in Ohio and California.

“The ONC-FHA showcase will also feature 32 mini educational presentations about the demonstration programs and related topics.  Please join us!”