On October 5th, 2007, HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt announced the award of nine contracts to health information exchange networks (HIEs) to begin trial implementations of the Nationwide Health Information Network (NHIN). HIEs are networks with strong protection for patient privacy that connect patient health care information and electronic health records for use by providers and patients. The trial implementations will test the ability of HIE networks to interoperate with other HIE networks, thereby becoming a network of networks.
This announcement, which awards approximately $2.5 million to Lovelace Clinic Foundation (LCF), will cover the first phase (base implementation) of the NHIN Trial Implementation. As one of the awardees, LCF will be able to expand the New Mexico Health Information Collaborative (NMHIC), which is the HIE that will serve New Mexico. As the NMHIC HIE expands, it will enable significant improvements in continuity of care, reduce duplicate health care services, facilitate early detection of health emergencies, facilitate consumer and payer access to health care quality and cost information, and provide consumer access to their own personal health care information.
“These trial implementations are taking place in communities across America that are leading the way to health care transformation using secure, interoperable health information technology,” Secretary Leavitt said. “Trial implementations of the Nationwide Health Information Network will bring us steps closer to a health IT system that will improve quality of care, increase efficiencies in health care, and improve disease prevention.”
Awardees include the following organizations, representing broad-based state and regional health information exchanges:”
CareSpark -- Tricities region of Eastern Tennessee and Southwestern Virginia
Delaware Health Information Network -- Delaware
Indiana University -- Indianapolis metroplex
Long Beach Network for Health -- Long Beach and Los Angeles, California
Lovelace Clinic Foundation -- New Mexico
MedVirginia -- Central Virginia
New York eHealth Collaborative -- New York
North Carolina Healthcare Information and Communications Alliance, Inc. -- North Carolina
West Virginia Health Information Network -- West Virginia
LCF is an independent, non-profit applied health research organization. In 2004, LCF received a federal grant from the Agency for Health Research and Quality (AHRQ) to develop the HIE network for New Mexico. This project is called the New Mexico Health Information Collaborative (NMHIC). During the past three years, LCF has received federal, state, and community support to develop NMHIC. In 2005, LCF began to develop a community wide master person index to enable identification of patient health care information across multiple health care facilities. In 2006, the HIE demonstrated the use of clinical messaging in Taos with Holy Cross Hospital and its associated medical practices, and in the fall of 2007, the HIE network will be demonstrated at Presbyterian Health Systems.
Since privacy and security is a major factor in the operation of HIE networks, LCF became a subcontractor to the State of New Mexico for the federal contract which enabled it to become part of the Health Information Security and Privacy Collaborative (HISPC) in 2006. This work effort has been extended to create draft state legislation for the protection of patient information when stored or communicated electronically. The award of the NHIN Trial Implementation contract continues and expands the work of LCF and the NMHIC stakeholder community to improve health care in New Mexico via health information exchange.
