ONC's Fridsma on Security for HIEs

Different security approaches are required to protect the privacyof health information "pushed" -- or exchanged directly between two organizations -- and information that is "pulled" as a result of complex queries, says Doug Fridsma M.D., Ph.D, of the HHS Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT.

In an interview (transcript below) following a presentation at the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society Conference in Orlando, Fridsma:

• Explains that the federal Direct Project amounts to a secure messaging system for simple "push" transactions that requires the use of authentication and encryption. The Direct Project open source standards are now in pilot tests. The standards can be used, for example, when a primary care physician sends patient information to a specialist after a referral...