Connect upgrades patient search, authentication January 26, 2010
Posted by gonzalezloumiet in Connect, Nationwide Health Information Network, Vish Sankaran.Tags: Connect, NHIN, Vish Sankaran
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By Mary Mosquera
Friday, January 22, 2010
The Health & Human Services Department has updated the government’s Connect software to incorporate the ability to query for a patient and to assure the identity of sender and recipient in the exchange of health data.
Connect is the federally developed software that lets agencies and healthcare organizations share health data by using the protocols, agreements and core services that comprise the nationwide health information network (NHIN).
HHS continues to improve or add more functionality to the Connect gateway software on a quarterly basis to be a model for health information exchange, according to Les Westberg, Connect’s technical lead in the Federal Health Architecture (FHA) program and an executive with Agilex.
Authentication requirements “should be in line with some of the tightest security that’s possible right now,” he said, during an online conference Jan. 19 about the latest version of Connect software.
Authentication works hand-in-hand with the data use and reciprocal agreement (DURSA), which is a legal agreement signed by the organizations to assure a certain level of authentication, he said. The organizations communicate that authentication information with use of Security Assertion Mark-up Language (SAML), a standard for exchanging authentication and authorization data.
NHIN authentication services will include digital certificates to document a user’s identity has been verified, lists of those whose certification has been revoked and the ability to ask if an organization’s NHIN certification is still valid, Westberg said.
Another significant upgrade is the technical ability for Connect to be able to query if a patient is known to an exchange user. Some demographic data can accompany the query. That replaced a general notification that the system was looking for the subject, he said.
Connect also introduced a set of responses when a patient is discovered. The gateway can pass through the results of the discovery to the adapter, the interface between the healthcare organization and Connect; check the demographics first against a master patient index before passing through the information; or return the result and make a record of it
The FHA team revises Connect based on technical recommendations from the NHIN Specifications Factory, which is made up of representatives of the Office of the Nationa Coordinator for Health IT (ONC) and other public and private sectors involved in health information exchange. The NHIN requirements align with the latest Health IT Standards Panel and health information exchange standards, Westberg said.
HIT Policy Committee considers NHIN’s new role January 15, 2010
Posted by gonzalezloumiet in Uncategorized.add a comment
January 15, 2010 | Diana Manos, Senior Editor
WASHINGTON – Members of the HIT Policy Committee wrestled with the fate of the Nationwide Health Information Network during their meeting on Wednesday.
Committee members said the NHIN, a federal interoperability initiative begun in 2004, must now align itself with the newer and more urgent timeline established in the HITECH part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, passed last February.
The HIT Policy Committee adopted the NHIN workgroup’s recommendation for a "conceptual" framework for the NIHN and what the NHIN should expect from federal agencies. The members don’t know how those recommendations will be turned into actions and deadlines.
David Blumenthal, the National Coordinator for Health IT and chairman of the HIT Policy Committee, said the group will continue to expand its vision for the NHIN at upcoming meetings.
"The NHIN was developed before HITECH," he noted. "Is this sufficient, or should we be thinking more broadly?"
Blumenthal urged the committee to think of ways the government can promote meaningful use as part of the NHIN.
With providers who want to receive bonuses under ARRA expected to demonstrate meaningful use of healthcare IT by 2011, Blumenthal said of the NHIN: "If there are new investments we have to make, new aspirations we need to communicate, we have no time to lose."
The NHIN workgroup chairman, David Lansky, said the NHIN should enable the broadest range of providers to exchange information to achieve meaningful use and enable consumers to be able to access their health information. It should also provide access to states and other organizations that support providers.
The goals the committee approved for the future of the NHIN include:
- The federal government should focus on the minimum standards, policies and services needed for foundational exchange components to further meaningful use in the near-term.
- NHIN policies, standards and services should be structured so that intermediaries can provide required services for private and secure routing of health information.
- The federal government should work with stakeholders to improve and leverage directories for the NHIN.
- The federal government should define a core set of policies for the interoperation of trusted directories.
- The NHIN should build upon existing federal standards, policies and practices for authentication and identity proofing.
Uber Operations and NHIN: http://blog.uberops.com/2009/06/15/uber-operations-at-the-lista-d-c-forum/ and http://blog.uberops.com/2009/12/12/uberops-at-the-lista-2009-tech-leadership-summit/
Source: http://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/hit-policy-committee-considers-nhins-new-role
