Earlier this month, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services released a summary report of findings from its four nationwide health information network (NHIN) prototype demonstrations. In November, 2005, the Office for the National Coordinator of Health Information Technology awarded four contracts for developing prototypes to Accenture, Computer Sciences Corp., IBM and Northrup Grumman. Each was asked to develop a prototype architecture for the NHIN and interconnect three communities. The prototype architectures describe methods to ensure privacy and security, consumer management of personal health records, and information support for clinicians who are making clinical decisions.

The summary report catalogs the first year’s work and is available at: http://www.hhs.gov/healthit/healthnetwork/resources/
summary_report_on_nhin_Prototype_architectures.pdf.