Using Standards to Automate Electronic Health Records (EHRs) and to Create Integrated Healthcare Enterprises

President Bush's 2004 executive order mandated the creation within the Secretary of Health and Human Services' staff of a new Office of the National Coordinator for Healthcare Information Technology (ONCHIT) that was tasked with creating the United States National Healthcare Information Network (NHIN). The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) and the 2004 and a subsequent 2006 executive orders have finally set the stage to design, and require, the use of standardized, electronic data interchange-enabled information systems as quickly as possible.