IT vendors join forces for $18.6 million national healthcare network prototype

Accenture, Cisco, IBM, Microsoft, Northrop Grumman, Oracle and Sun are among a wide range of technology and consulting companies tapped recently to design a $18.6 million Nationwide Health Information Network for the U.S. Health and Human Services Department.

The NHIN is HHS’s plan for an Internet-based network that links disparate healthcare organizations, such as local clinics, city hospitals, universities and government health agencies to share and have secure access to clinical data.

“This effort will help design an information network that will transform our healthcare system resulting in higher quality, lower costs, less hassle and better care for American consumers,” HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt said in a statement.

The NHIN will be designed and rolled out through four consortia, each consisting of several IT, consulting, security and healthcare companies and organizations. Accenture, Computer Science Corporation (CSC), IBM and Northrop Grumman. Each consortia are responsible for NHIN coverage in specific areas of the country.

Each consortia will put together a protytype IP-based network prototype during the coming year. These networks will include patient identification and information services combined with user authentication and security features. When the prototypes are finished, the results will be given to the American Health Information Community, an advisory committee to the HHS and focused on digitizing and network-enabling healthcare records.

The four NHIN consortia are broken down as follows:

Accenture will lead:

· Apelon

· Cisco

· CGI-AMS

· Creative Computing Solutions

· eTech Security Pro

· Intellithought

· Lucent Glow

· Oakland Consulting Group

· Oracle

· Quovadx

Markets served include: Eastern Kentucky Regional Health Community (Kentucky); CareSpark (Tennessee); and West Virginia eHealth Initiative (West Virginia).

CSC will lead:

· Browsersoft

· Business Networks International

· Center for Information Technology Leadership

· Connecting for Health

· DB Consulting Group

· eHealth Initiative

· Electronic Health Record Vendors Association

· Microsoft

· Regenstrief Institute

· SiloSmashers

· Sun 

Markets served include: Indiana Health Information Exchange (Indiana); MA-SHARE (Massachusetts); and Mendocino HRE (California).

IBM will lead:

· Argosy

· Business Innovation

· Cisco

· HMS Technologies

· IDL Solutions

· Ingenium

· VICCS

Markets served include: Taconic Health Information Network and Community (New York); North Carolina Healthcare Information and Communications Alliance (Research Triangle North Carolina); and North Carolina Healthcare Information and Communications Alliance (Rockingham County

North Carolina).

Northrop Grumman will lead:

· Air Commander

· Axolotl

· Client/Server Software Solutions

· First Consulting Group

· SphereCom Enterprises

· WebMD

Markets served include: Santa Cruz RHIO (Santa Cruz, Calif.); and HealthBridge (Cincinnati, Ohio); University Hospitals Health System (Cleveland).