Title: Technology assessment of resources for the emerging US e-health infrastructure: a proposed interoperability model

Authors: Daniel Lorence, Anusha Sivaramakrishnan

Addresses: Department of Health Policy and Administration and School of Information Science and Technology, 114 Henderson HHD, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA. ' Department of Health Policy and Administration, 114 Henderson HHD, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA

Abstract: Recent mandates in the USA related to the creation of a National Health Information Infrastructure (NHII) highlight the need for seamless interconnection of healthcare providers. As a necessary precondition, however, an interoperable infrastructure is needed to help clinicians get access to critical healthcare information upon which their clinical and/or treatment decisions can be based. Relatively little has been done to identify or assess commercially available technologies that might work together to meet the required interoperability requirements. In this exploratory technology assessment we examine three core technologies that could serve as a foundation for secure NHII interoperability: Source-Independent Access Control (SIAC), vault process technology and database-independent multimedia capability.

Keywords: technology assessment; interoperability; electronic health records; computerised patient records; patient health records; e-health infrastructure; Office of the National Coordination for Health Information Technology; ONCHIT; National Health Information Infrastructure; NHII; electronic healthcare; e-healthcare; healthcare information; source-independent access control; SIAC; vault process technology; database-independent multimedia capability.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEH.2006.009275

International Journal of Electronic Healthcare, 2006 Vol.2 No.3, pp.291 - 303

Published online: 15 Mar 2006 *

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