EHR Association Responds to ONC Request for Information on NwHIN Governance

The EHR Association, a collaboration of 41 EHR suppliers, recently submitted its response to the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology’s (ONC) Request for Information (RFI) Nationwide Health Information Network (NwHIN): Conditions for Trusted Exchange, expressing appreciation that this is an RFI, not a notice of proposed rule-making which gives all industry stakeholders the opportunity to engage in this important dialog.

"The ONC request for information provided a good framework to begin this process as we work to move the NwHIN forward as a foundational component of the national health IT infrastructure," said Leigh Burchell, vice president of government affairs for Allscripts and chair of the EHR Association’s Public Policy Leadership Workgroup. “We’re supportive of ONC’s clear direction that participation in the NwHIN would be on a voluntary basis, and are strongly recommending that the governance model be based on public/private sector collaboration.”

The EHR Association provided specific recommendations regarding conditions for trusted exchange (CTEs), suggesting that the initial rules should focus on the governance model rather than the initial set of CTEs and their maintenance which should be the result of a governance framework, not the framework itself.

“We also request clearer definition of network validated entity (NVE). While the RFI includes some examples of organizations that may want to become NVEs, there is little reference to the parties among whom the NVE is facilitating information exchange,” said Charles Parisot, architecture and standards manager for GE Healthcare IT and chair of the EHR Association Standards and Interoperability Workgroup, which led the effort to develop this response.

Burchell added, “We see this RFI and the opportunity to provide input to this important strategy as another example of the transparency with which ONC has strived to operate since its inception. We look forward to the opportunity to bring our expertise, and the perspectives of our clients, to bear on the direction of this initiative.”

The complete RFI response is available at http://www.himssehra.org.
 
Source: EHR Association