Health Information Compliance Alert

The Department of Health and Human Services' wants to link public and private health information technology systems to the government's Nationwide Health Information Network - and is offering free software as an incentive.

HHS' Federal Health Architecture is heading up the job,according to a press release. FHA, an "E-Gov" initiative led by the Office of the National Coordinator for HealthInformation Technology (ONC), is making this free software,called CONNECT, and supporting documentation available at  www.connectopensource.org.

The National Health Information Network's goal is to tie together health information exchanges, delivery networks,pharmacies, government health facilities and payers,labs, providers, private payers, and other stakeholders into a "network of networks," HHS says. The NHIN will allow previously disconnected systems and exchanges to connect to each other and share data.

The agencies built CONNECT using open source components and will make it available under an open source license to encourage innovation and to keep costs low,HHS said. CONNECT will be available to the entire health care industry, which is expected to speed NHIN adoption among health care organizations.

"Federal agencies accomplished something remarkable in developing CONNECT. They looked beyond their individual needs to the needs of the group as a whole, and they collectively built a solution that provides benefits to all involved much faster and at a significantly reduced cost than if they had worked independently," Kolodner said. "Not only did the agencies deliver a valuable product for use in the federal government, CONNECT is now an option for any public or private sector organization that wants to use the solution in the future to tie into the Nationwide Health Information Network when it goes into full production."

Collaborative effort: The Department of Defense, the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Social Security Administration(SSA), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Indian Health Service, and the National Cancer Institute have tested and demonstrated CONNECT's ability to share data among one another and with private sector organizations. In February 2009, the CONNECT software gateway was used for the first time in a limited production environment when the SSA began receiving live patient data from MedVirginia through the NHIN.

"Delivering CONNECT has been an enormous project,and we still have a lot of work to do to move us to largescale production usage. But with the support of the federal agencies and industry, we can accomplish the lofty health IT goals set at the national level," commented the Federal Health Architecture's program director Vish Sankaran.

Private and public sector organizations can download CONNECT, HHS said. As with other open source solutions,organizations are encouraged to modify and expand the software capabilities.

The cost kicker: Although the download is free, an organization opting to use the solution should be aware it will be responsible for costs associated with its implementation and maintenance within its own environment, HHS said.

Resource: More information about HHS health information technology activities is available at www.hhs.gov/healthit.