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Biosecurity Briefing
HHS Awards $22.5 Million for Electronic Health Records Demonstration Initiative By Molly D’Esopo, October 12, 2007 On October 5, 2007, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced that it would award contracts for trial implementation of the Nationwide Health Information Network (NHIN). According to an HHS press release, nine health information exchanges [HIEs], which are “networks that securely connect electronic health records for providers and patients,” are slated to receive awards totaling $22.5 million to “create a secure foundation for basic health information exchange between select HIEs upon which more complex functions will be possible over time.”1 The HHS press release named the following HIE awardees for the trial:
This funding is being awarded in an effort to reach the President’s goal of establishing a nationwide electronic health records system by 2014. The nine HIEs will work together to “demonstrate the exchange of private and secure health information among providers, patients and other health care stakeholders.”1 At the conclusion of the trial implementation, specifications and other materials “will be placed in the public domain to facilitate widespread participation in . . . developing the NHIN.” According to Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt, “Trial implementations of the Nationwide Health Information Network will bring us closer to a health IT system that will improve quality of care, increase efficiencies in health care, and improve disease prevention.”1 References
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