Survey: Privacy a Top HIE Concern

Privacy and security issues ranked higher as a threat to success than HIE sustainability and funding, among other issues.

The survey of 166 executives at healthcare providers, government units, operators of HIEs and other organizations also found that the HIE-related issue cited as being "of greatest concern" also was privacy and security.

The National eHealth Collaborative, which promotes secure and interoperable nationwide health information exchange, conducted the online survey in December and January. It unveiled the results at the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society Conference in Orlando.

"This survey is just the beginning of an invaluable dialogue about what we need to do to achieve a sustainable and robust nationwide health information exchange," said Holt Anderson, a member of the collaborative's board.

Also at the HIMSS Conference, Deven McGraw, co-chair of the Privacy and Security Tiger Team that's advising federal authorities regarding health information exchange issues, outlined the next topics the team will tackle next.

And Doug Fridsma, M.D., director of the office of interoperability and standards at the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT, described the privacy and security components of two national networking initiatives: The Direct Project and the Nationwide Health Information Network standards.