Federal officials have decided upon vendors for eight of the 11 planned contracts to develop a framework for health information exchange, but there will be no public announcement until the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology decides the winners of all 11.

"All of these contracts have to fit together," Doug Fridsma, acting director of ONC's Office of Standards and Interoperability, told the Health IT Standards Committee last week, Government Health IT reports. The final three contracts are undergoing review by the White House Office of Management and Budget, he said, and work on all 11 contracts will start by early July. The original plan was for work to begin in March.

The contracts, for what's being called the National Information Exchange Model, will create an HIE framework based on a strategy that has proved successful for data sharing among other federal agencies. The model will follow XML standards, according to Government Health IT.

ONC has said that the contractors will help develop definitions for HIE--all based on existing data standards--and create use cases for testing NIEM transactions. Fridsma promised that ONC will present a "concept of operations" for the NIEM at the Health IT Standards Committee's next meeting on June 30.

To learn more:
- read this Government Health IT story

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