title: Exchanging health information: local distribution, national coordination.
abstract: The fragmentation of our health care system, our need to accommodate the diversity of existing health information exchanges, the lack of consistent implementation of clinical information standards, and the need to protect patients' privacy and maintain trust are all challenges to overcome in achieving broad-scale interoperable health information exchange. We propose several steps to coordinate information sharing among regional and other networks through universal adherence to a basic framework of policies and standards. The critical policy action is the identification of a "common framework" of standards and policies, maintained by a new Standards and Policy Entity that reflects both public- and private-sector participation.
authors.affiliation: CareGroup Healthcare System, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Halamka
authors.forename: J Marc
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Overhage
authors.forename: Lygeia
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Ricciardi
authors.forename: Wes
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Rishel
authors.forename: Clay
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Shirky
authors.forename: Carol
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Diamond
mesh_terms: D018672:Community Health Planning / Q000458:organization & administration*; D033181:Information Dissemination; D008498:Medical Record Linkage; D014481:United States