While creating the meaningful use rules that providers must follow to be eligible for the electronic health records incentive program has consumed much of the efforts of the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT, officials say that they are just getting started. They will soon turn their focus to creating a nationwide health information exchange network.
David Blumenthal, the national coordinator for health IT, told Government Health IT that his office is currently working with HER and practice management vendors to create standards of interoperability that will enable the creation of this network.
“We don’t believe that standards development stopped in July 2010,” he told the news source. “We are actively developing new implementation specifications in collaboration with health IT vendors, standards development organizations and industry in a wiki-style process, such as has been done with the Direct Project.”
However, he added that his office will have its work cut out for it. Efforts to launch national information exchanges in Canada and the Netherlands, which currently have a higher adoption rate for health IT, have been fraught with complications.
Blumenthal has previously said that the rules that will govern the national information exchange should be released sometime this year.