NCHICA Awarded Key Role in Nationwide Health Information Network Second Phase
Posted: 10-08-2007 : RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C.

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C. – The North Carolina Healthcare Information and Communications Alliance, Inc. (NCHICA), a nonprofit consortium that aims to improve health and care in North Carolina through health information technology (HIT) initiatives, today announced it has been awarded a contract by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services for Nationwide Health Information Network (NHIN) trial implementation. The NHIN initiative aims to build a ‘network of networks’ that facilitates accurate, appropriate, timely and secure health information exchange (HIE) to improve the safety, efficiency and quality of healthcare across the nation.

“We are honored to be selected from this competitive field to continue our organization’s NHIN efforts,” said Tom Earnhardt, President of NCHICA and Senior Vice President of Cabarrus Family Medicine. “This award will enable North Carolina to support the national development of the NHIN.”

Conducted through state and regional HIEs, the trial implementations are guided by the standards-based prototype architectures for secure information sharing developed by four consortia in the first phase of the NHIN initiative completed in January 2007. NCHICA participated in the consortium led by IBM that included Duke University Health System, FirstHealth of the Carolinas, Morehead Memorial Hospital in Eden, NC, and Moses Cone Health System for these cornerstone efforts.

“Our role in the NHIN project allows us to leverage NCHICA’s strength in facilitating collaboration in healthcare transformation,” said Holt Anderson, Executive Director of NCHICA.

NCHICA will participate in an NHIN cooperative with the other awardees to specify the interfaces and transactions necessary for core services and American Health Information Community (AHIC) priority areas/use cases. Specifications will be determined for interfaces between health information service providers, linking health information service providers and provider organizations and systems, with specialty networks and systems, and with government health systems. Participants will also test their interoperability through cooperative exchange testing.

NCHICA will work with IBM, the North Carolina Health Information Exchange Governance Council, the North Carolina Consumer Advisory Council for Health Information and a project Steering Committee. These bodies will be involved in activities including development of data exchange and other policy agreements and adoption of standards-based security and communications technologies that will allow the secure exchange of health information for two use cases, which will be named later.

About NCHICA
The North Carolina Healthcare Information and Communications Alliance, Inc. (NCHICA) is a nationally recognized nonprofit consortium that serves as an open, effective and neutral forum for health information technology (HIT) initiatives that improve health and care in North Carolina. Members include leading organizations in healthcare, research and information technology.

Working closely with its members, NCHICA has the unique ability to convene and form partnerships to advance HIT adoption. NCHICA’s leadership in conducting demonstration projects, hosting educational sessions and fostering collective efforts within North Carolina helps position the state at the vanguard of national HIT acceleration efforts. NCHICA is located in Research Triangle Park, NC. For more information, please call (919) 558-9258 or visit www.NCHICA.org.

Media Contact: Alyssa Willard, Alyssa@zarbconsulting.com, (919) 791-0012