Jonathan Gershater recently published an interesting blog post exploring the conceptual differences between the National Health Information Network (NHIN) infrastructure, “a collection of standards, protocols, legal agreements, specifications, and services that enables the secure exchange of health information over the internet,” and an alternate approach known as the Health Internet, “an open-market standards-based approach to enable the exchange and sharing of electronic health data, using existing Internet standard protocols and web technologies.”

Jonathan referenced two informative posts on The Health Care Blog and Practice Fusion’s blog.  I’m still trying to wrap my mind around the significance of these two architectural directions, but it certainly appears that Identity is a critical part of the solution, regardless of what alternative approach or derivatives thereof may emerge.  Any Electronic Health Record (EHR) system must be based upon secure, flexible and scalable Identity Management system.

Thank, Jonathan, for the excellent reference.