NHIN contracts awarded to nine exchanges

By Bernie Monegain, Editor

Washington, October 5, 2007 - Contracts totaling $22.5 million have been awarded to nine health information exchanges to begin trial implementations of the Nationwide Health Information Network, or NHIN.

Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt named the winning HIEs today:

• CareSpark - Tricities region of Eastern Tennessee and Southwestern Virginia
• Delaware Health Information Network - Delaware
• Indiana University - Indianapolis metroplex
• Long Beach Network for Health - Long Beach and Los Angeles, California
• Lovelace Clinic Foundation - New Mexico
• MedVirginia - Central Virginia
• New York eHealth Collaborative - New York
• North Carolina Healthcare Information and Communications Alliance - North Carolina
• West Virginia Health Information Network - West Virginia

The contracts call for the creation of a secure foundation for basic health information exchange between select HIEs upon which more complex functions will be possible over time.

The work is intended to move the nation toward the President Bush's goal of most Americans having access to secure electronic health records by 2014.

“These trial implementations are taking place in communities across America that are leading the way to healthcare transformation using secure, interoperable health information technology,” Leavitt said. “Trial implementations of the Nationwide Health Information Network will bring us steps closer to a health IT system that will improve quality of care, increase efficiencies in healthcare, and improve disease prevention.”

The exchanges will participate in the NHIN Cooperative – a collaborative to test and demonstrate the exchange of private and secure health information among providers, patients and other stakeholders.

“The NHIN trial implementations are another important step toward improving health and care of individuals and communities and to continue to modernize health care delivery,” said Robert Kolodner, MD, national coordinator for health information technology.

HHS’ Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is expected to announce contract awards in December that will complement the efforts announced today. The joint work is designed to ensure that health information exchanges using the NHIN infrastructure can support the community-based activities of public health agencies.

Interim NHIN results will be shared through three public forums and other public demonstrations of real-time information exchange at the end of the first contract year – in September 2008.

Once created, the NHIN health information exchanges’ specifications and related testing materials will be placed in the public domain to facilitate widespread participation in developing the NHIN.

HIEs are networks that securely connect electronic health records for providers and patients. Together, the HIEs will form the “network of networks,” that will form the NHIN. Leavitt said the NHIN trial implementations will leverage recent accomplishments of HHS, its contractors and partners, including: the Healthcare Information Technology Standards Panel (HITSP), the Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology (CCHIT), the Health Information Security and Privacy Collaboration (HISPC) and the National Committee on Vital and Health Statistics (NCVHS).

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