Trial implementations for the National Health Information Network will be supported by the Office for the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONCHIT) in 2007. Interim coordinator, Robert Kolodner, MD, said in a press release that the trial implementations “are a critical next step to move America closer to realizing an interoperable Nationwide Health Information Network. By bringing together the significant expertise and work achieved this year by the current efforts with state and local health information exchanges, we can begin to construct the ‘network of networks’ that will form the basis of the Nationwide Health Information Network.”

Details about the procurement process will be revealed in the coming months and proposals to create trial implementations will be sought in the spring of 2007. The trial implementations are expected to demonstrate the interoperability of the four prototypes developed in 2006 under very similar HHS contracts.

The prototypes were designed by various consortia led by companies such as Accenture, Computer Sciences Corp. IBM and Northrop Grumman. This was part of a contract from HHS contracts valued at $18.6 million. In January 2007, the four existing consortia will present the prototype architectures various industry meetings.