ONC Selects Data-Sharing Software

The federal government's Direct Project, a streamlined version of the Nationwide Health Information Network, will enable health-care providers using open-source software to securely share basic patient records.

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT announced the first version of the software earlier this week, along with plans for a series of pilot tests, Government Health IT reported. Hospitals and medical practices must be able to share basic data to meet the first stage of meaningful use standards and claim federal incentive money for electronic health record implementation.

"The goal is for universal addressing and secure transport for care processes, which would be a major upgrade from paper and fax," said Arien Malec, coordinator of the Direct Project, in an online presentation covered by Government Health IT.

The Health IT Standards Committee has met with vendors to begin evaluations for setting common standards for the information-sharing software. The committee will analyze the technical descriptions of how the software is to be used to ensure that it works for even small practices, the publication reported, quoting Dr. John Halamka, co-chair of the standards committee.

Health-care providers sending information such as patient referrals and care summaries via one-to-one exchanges usually know one another, according to iHealthBeat.org. Messages will be sent securely using common e-mail parameters dictated by the standards announced this week.

Providers also could send information directly to patients for inclusion in their personal health records, Malec said.