Coordinating Less; Accomplishing More

On April 28, Government Health IT published an op-ed piece with my consent and participation. It was based on a longer and more spontaneous blog entry at this site. It had its roots in my wish to see more focus and immediate wins in areas that will raise the larger questions.

• Follow this link to the Government Health IT op-ed piece

In this op-ed piece, I said:

"One hopes a smaller set of high-priority items will emerge that can be adopted across the health care sector. I believe about 12 of the core services are must-do high priorities, and many others could be set aside for future consideration."

I was commenting on the bewildering array of features and functionalities described in the Gartner NHIN I report. These features are actually more bewildering because each use case in turn added features and desiderata that may or may not be congruent with the larger NHIN list. The simple fact: there are a lot of things that would be nice to have, but the list of things we must have in a "Version 1.0" world may be fewer in number and complexity.

• Follow this link to a draft document of the 12 core services I have proposed.

For each, I the pdf document linked above cross-references the relevant NHIN reports. Summarizing in a few words, the 12 core services are:

1. Data delivery
2. Look-up
3. Matching
4. Summary patient records
5. Integrity
6. Choice
7. Audits
8. Identity
9. Authentication
10. Management
11. Security
12. De-authorization

These may be the wrong items, and there may be differing priorities, but this writer at least believes starting with some of the NHIN terms - using these terms and supporting their evolution over time through thoughtful study - seems like one approach.