The Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC) has organized a workgroup under the auspices of the HIT Policy Committee to move forward on and maintain consistency with respect to a range of privacy and security issues. This new “Privacy & Security Tiger Team” will be co-chaired by Deven McGraw, Center for Democracy & Technology, and Paul Egerman, a health IT consultant, and comprised of members of the Health IT Policy and Standards Committees, as well as of the National Committee on Vital and Health Statistics (NCVHS).
The Tiger Team will work over the next few months to address the privacy and security requirements of the HITECH Act, as well as the needs of the new organizations – such as state health information exchanges and regional health IT extension centers – created under that law. The group held its first meeting June 9 and at it discussed: at what level its policy recommendations should be; the overarching issues raised by NHIN Direct; and what privacy and security frameworks should be in place.
The group met again on June 10 to continue its discussions. ONC expects the Tiger Team’s work to be completed by late fall 2010.