ONC HIE Framework A Guide And 'Living Document'

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT has published a governance framework for health information exchange aimed at helping HIEs and other health organizations “align their work with national priorities.”

The framework stems from, and is in part an alternative to, the now-abandoned pursuit of governance for the nationwide health information network. The ONC decided to discontinue the formal rulemaking process, national coordinator Farzad Mostashari, MD, explained, and “instead implement an approach that provides a means for defining and implementing nationwide trusted exchange with higher agility, and lower likelihood of regret.”

The framework is meant to provide a “common conceptual foundation applicable to all types of governance models and expresses the principles ONC believes are most important for HIE governance,” ONC officials wrote. Rather than prescribing “specific solutions,” it “lays out milestones and outcomes that ONC expects for and from HIE governance entities.”