ONC panel approves steps for provider directories, NHIN rules

The Health IT Policy Committee, panel that advises the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, has endorsed steps to help healthcare providers identify and address hospitals, clinics, labs and other organizations electronically through directories. The Health IT Policy Committee also approved broad recommendations for rules of the road for governing the nationwide health information network (NHIN) in order to draw more participants.

The NHIN is a set of standards and services that enables mostly large providers to share patient data securely through the Internet. The two sets of recommendations act as building blocks for health information exchange to coordinate and improve the quality of patient care, members of the policy committee said at its Dec. 13 meeting. The committee’s information exchange work group described the features and policies for starting up entity-level provider directories to support health information exchange for meaningful use of electronic health records starting in 2011, said Mickey Tripathi, panel chair and CEO of the Massachusetts eHealth Collaborative.