NHIN, RHIOs and all that

For those of you keeping score of activity in the National Health Information Infrastructure (with its plethora of accompanying acronyms): pilot projects have now been funded; early standards have been announced; and Brailer's office has announced that it will attempt to properly count what the adoption levels of EMRs, CPOEs, et al actually are. But is this the year that the discussions behind the 100-odd RHIOs will bear fruit or, like the CHIN movement, will they die on the vine?

Can we develop data exchange standards so that records and information can be exchanged? Almost certainly. Can we create a messaging infrastructure that allows open standards so that system A can communicate with system B to find patient Y's data? Maybe. And with email and TCP/IP we at least know what that infrastructure might look like. Can we develop a business case for healthcare organizations to share data with each other? That remains most uncertain.

The concept of open and secure data exchange bears great promise for healthcare. If the NHIN is to be successful, there must be some real "wins" from the emerging RHIOs and the time for that is this year.