STRATEGIC PLAN - ASPE - U.S. Department of Health and Human ...

CHAPTER 2: Health careinformation systems involves more than communicationstandards because the movement of information from onelocation to another implies moving from one authorizedprovider to another authorized provider in a securefashion while ensuring that the correct patients’ data arelinked. Patient identity, authorization, authentication,and other standards are necessary to ensure that patients’needed health information is available at the right timeand place.Policy CouncilThe mission of the Interagency Health InformationTechnology Policy Council is to coordinate Federalhealth IT policy decisions across Federal departmentsand entities that will drive Federal action necessaryto realize the President’s goals of widespread healthIT adoption. The Policy Council will address healthIT policy issues raised by its members, the AmericanHealth Information Community, the NationalCommittee on Vital and Health Statistics, andothers. The initial focus of the Policy Council is toestablish a strategic direction for Federal policy andidentify accelerators to support breakthroughs of theCommunity. To accelerate health IT initiatives, thePolicy Council will consider Federal policy levers suchas procurement, reimbursement, new or modifiedregulation, program guidance, incentives for privatesector activity, and research.Federal Health ArchitectureUnder the leadership of ONC, Federal Health Architecture(FHA) will provide the structure “architecture” forcollaboration and interoperability among Federal healthefforts. FHA is one of five Lines of Business supportingthe President’s Management Agenda goal to expandelectronic government. FHA will create a consistentFederal framework to facilitate communication andcollaboration among all health care entities to improvecitizen access to health-related information and highqualityservices. It will link health business processesto their enabling technology solutions and standardsto demonstrate how these solutions achieve improvedhealth performance outcomes. It also will provide theability to identify cross-functional processes, redundantsystems, areas for collaboration, and opportunities toenhance interoperability in critical information systemsand infrastructure.Public Health Information NetworkSupporting the national health IT agenda and FHA isthe Public Health Information Network (PHIN), a nationalinitiative to implement a multiorganizational businessand technical architecture for public health informationsystems. With the acceptance of IT as a core element ofpublic health, public health professionals are activelyseeking essential tools capable of addressing andmeeting the needs of the community.PHIN will elevate and integrate the capabilities ofpublic health information systems across the widevariety of organizations that participate in publichealth and across the wide variety of interrelated publichealth functional needs. PHIN targets the support andintegration of systems for disease surveillance, nationalhealth status indicators, data analysis, public healthdecision support, information resources and knowledgemanagement, alerting and communications, and themanagement of public health response.PHIN includes a portfolio of software solutions andartifacts necessary in building and maintaininginterconnected information systems throughout publichealth at the local, State, and Federal levels. PHINadvances the Nationwide Health Information Networkand the national health IT agenda by embracingthe standards identified by the Health InformationTechnology Standards Panel.Privacy and Security SolutionsThe Privacy and Security Solutions for InteroperableHealth Information Exchange contract is comanagedby AHRQ and ONC. This contract has fostered anenvironment in which States and territories havebeen able to assess variations in organization-levelbusiness policies and State laws that affect healthinformation exchange, identify and propose practicalsolutions while preserving the privacy and securityrequirements in applicable Federal and State laws,and develop detailed plans to implement solutions56 HHS Strategic Plan FY 2007-2012