Interoperability of health data is more than just a convenience for patients and providers. It could be a matter of national security.

HHS is accepting public comments on the first set of details for implementation of a proposed "National Health Security Strategy," a federally mandated plan to employ IT to mitigate the public-health impact of natural and man-made disasters, pandemic outbreaks and terrorist attacks.

The HHS proposal, known as the "Biennial Implementation Plan," calls for "adequate information technology and electronic health records (EHRs)" to help manage and track public-health events, and for the development of terminology and measures to help assess the readiness of the U.S. healthcare system to respond to such emergencies, Government Health IT reports. Some aspects of the plan include social media to bring people together at the community level.

The HHS proposal taps the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology as "notional lead" for much of the planning and response--as if ONC isn't stretched thin enough already. Other possible lead agencies include the HHS Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Department of Homeland Security.

This first biennial plan takes into account the struggling economy, making "the assumption that there will be no significant sums of new public funds available for national health security in the next two years." Instead, it challenges stakeholders to devise "new and creative ways" of making do with current resources.

To learn more:
- have a look at this Government Health IT story
- download the National Health Security Strategy's Biennial Implementation Plan

Related Articles:
Disaster recovery efforts for hospitals the focus of new AHRQ guides
Focus on disaster readiness could mean retrofitting, renovations for Calif., hospitals
Many states behind on public health preparedness