Establishing Trust And Interoperability In The Post-NwHIN Governance Era

At the September meeting of the Health IT Policy Committee, National Coordinator for Health IT Farzad Mostashari announced that the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT was dropping its plans to issue regulations setting voluntary "rules of the road" for participation in the Nationwide Health Information Network (NwHIN). This action removes one potential tool for advancing a framework of standards and policies to enable digital health information exchange among providers and patients.

With Stage 2 of meaningful use requiring more exchange of digital health information, the need to establish and implement such a framework has never been more urgent. HHS should more actively use its existing authorities to build a virtual network that facilitates the efficient sharing of health information in a way that health care providers and patients trust.