Conceptual SOS Model and Simulation Systems for A Next Generation National Healthcare Information Network (NHIN-2): Creating A Net-Centric, Extensible, Context Aware, Dynamic Discovery Framework for Robust, Secure, Flexible, Safe, and Reliable Healthcare

This paper describes the emerging US National Healthcare Information Network (NHIN). Scheduled to be completed for the US Department of Health and Human Services (DHSS) by 2014, the NHIN will be a complex system of systems information network built up from consumer, physician, hospital, and regional healthcare information organizations (RHIOs). The advantages and disadvantages of NHIN's RHIOs are discussed, and a proposed service oriented architecture (SOA) version we have preliminarily named NHIN-2 is described. This paper explains the advantages of the proposed SOA-enhanced NHIN-2, and how it could be modeled and simulated using tools and techniques currently being developed in the ARCES project for the US Department of Defense (DoD). The paper discusses the potential "dual use" or "peacetime dividends" the DoD work could provide in developing the NHIN-2.