NIST Seeks Participants in Electronic Health Project
Smaller healthcare providers face a number of challenges in implementing secure exchanges for electronic health information—from lack of expertise to cost considerations. But they are now getting help from a new demonstration project by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) that aims to create a secure data exchange platform.
In a Federal Register notice, NIST announced the initial step for the National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence in the Secure Exchange of Electronic Health Information project, inviting organizations with a stake in secure patient data exchange—including vendors, academia, and integrators—to take part by providing either products or technical expertise.
To participate, interested parties should contact the institute and request a certification letter. These letters must be completed, signed, and returned to NIST by 5 p.m. Eastern time, March 1. NIST will choose participants on a first-come, first-served basis, until all needs are met to finish the project. In addition, stakeholders are asked to identify which of the following components or platforms they are offering: electronic health information entry and display devices; authentication and authorization mechanisms; data transfer/communications components; electronic health information storage and retrieval components; forms generation capabilities; and printer devices or interfaces.
The goal of the project is to provide a security platform for smaller healthcare providers to exchange data securely; therefore, participants must have compatibility with various electronic health information systems used by those providers.
NIST has been steadily gearing up its efforts in support of secure patient data exchange. It cosponsors the cybersecurity center, which was unveiled in February 2012, with Montgomery County, MD, and the State of Maryland. The public-private collaboration is tasked with helping develop interoperable cybersecurity approaches, as well as tackling challenges to secure data exchange, including the large number of client devices and the range of healthcare data exchange standards.
The Federal Register notice is available here: www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2013-01-15/pdf/2013-00724.pdf.
Posted: January 17, 2013