Nationwide Health Information Network Exchange

• The Nationwide Health Information Network Exchange (“Exchange”) is a group of federal agencies and non-federal organizations that came together under a common mission and purpose to improve patient care, streamline disability benefit claims, and improve public health reporting through secure, trusted, and interoperable health information exchange.
   
• Participating organizations mutually agree to support a common set of standards and specifications that enable the establishment of a secure, trusted, and interoperable connection among all participating Exchange organizations for the standardized flow of information, by:
• Sending health information to other participating organizations
• Finding and requesting copies of healthcare information from other participating organizations--where permitted by law and policy
• Matching patients to their data without a national patient identifier
• Subscribing to receive updates to health information
   
• The organizations involved in the Nationwide Health Information Network Exchange built upon the early testing, demonstration, and development work from the Nationwide Health Information Network Trial Implementations, and built production-level capabilities.  In 2009, the Social Security Administration and MedVirginia (both members of the Nationwide Health Information Network Exchange) began exchanging data in production to automate and expedite the Social Security disability benefits claims process.  Later that year, the Veterans Health Administration, Department of Defense and Kaiser Permanente--also members of the Exchange--began exchanging summary patient records in support of the Virtual Lifetime Electronic Record.  These early experiences helped prove the viability of an interconnected exchange model, and provided invaluable lessons on how to improve, advance, and grow information exchange on a nationwide scale.

Today, more than 20 organizations participate in the Nationwide Health Information Network Exchange, with another 20 organizations expected in the coming months.  Currently each organization must support a common set of standards and specifications, proving compliance and the ability to interoperate with other Exchange participates through testing.  Organizations are held accountable through contractual arrangement and a committee structure.

The Nationwide Health Information Network Exchange's objective over the next two years is to gradually expand the use cases supported  by the Exchange and the number of participating organizations, as well as continue to refine, mature, and build capabilities to support broader connectivity and nationwide data exchange.