HHS ONC Writing and Communications Support
About the Client
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) is currently engaged in supporting health information technology initiatives established in the HITECH Act and furthered by healthcare reform. Part of this focus includes the establishment of systems to make health information truly interoperable between diverse platforms.
The Challenge
The Nationwide Health Information Network (NHIN) is a set of standards, services, and policies that enable secure health information exchange over the Internet. The network will create a framework for the exchange of health information across multiple and diverse entities, within communities and across the country. Providing secure information exchange, regardless of geographic location, will enable health information to follow the consumer, be available for clinical decision making, and support appropriate use of healthcare information beyond direct patient care. The ultimate result will create opportunities to improve national health.
The rapid pace of implementation of new standards and technologies has required the HHS ONC to reach out to the contractor community to support the development and launch of the NHIN.
The Solution
Segue (formerly as Net New Growth) served in this effort as a subcontractor to CGI Federal. To support NHIN Operation and Infrastructure Support, we provided documentation and communications consulting, using collaborative networking tools such as blogs, wikis, and social networking. Our team was responsible for facilitating communication among the technical staff, located in disperse geographic locations, and maintaining schedules and deadlines to keep all participants synchronized and moving forward. Our team documented processes and communicated findings through meetings, stakeholder briefings, and training for participants in the process at all levels. We provided program integration across the Standards & Interoperability (S&I) framework, integrating information and services from a variety of areas and capturing it for use by the entire team. We ensured that tasks were appropriately scheduled and executed by continuously monitoring performance and measuring adherence to schedule and task assignment.