Redwood MedNet :: Glossary

HAN - Health Alert Network.

Hardhats - The website and mailing list maintained by a virtual community for users of the VistA software. See VistA

Hardware - The physical electronic components (e.g., computer, server, switch, etc.), as opposed to the software that is installed to run on the hardware.

HCFA - Many years ago the Health Care Financing Administration was renamed the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). See CMS

HEDIS - The Health Plan Employer Data and Information Set (HEDIS) Measures are quality measures designed to help measure how well health plans follow care standards for prevention and treatment.

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HHS - United States Department of Health and Human Services is the cabinet level agency assigned to protect the health of all Americans and to provide human services. Major operating units within HHS with regard to health informatics include: AHRQ, CDC, CMS, FDA, HRSA, IHS, and NIH. See AHRQ, CDC, CMS, FDA, HRSA, IHS, NCVHS, NIH, ONC

HIE - Health Information Exchange. Recently ONC sought to limit the use of HIE as a verb-only term, and to adopt the cumbersome variant "HIO" as the noun-only counterpart term. Unfortunately, this effort has gained insufficient traction in field use, leading to terminology ambiguity. Based on current trends HIE is likely to survive as the single multipurpose term (noun + verb), and HIO is likely to join "RHIO" and "LHII" as deprecated terminology forks. See HIO, HRE, LHII, NAHIT, ONC, RHIO

HIE-AB - Health Information Exchange Advisory Board, established in 2009 by California HHS. See CHHS

HIO - Health Information Organization. Introduced recently as the formal noun-only counterpart term to HIE (the verb-only term). Field adoption of the HIO vs. HIE (noun vs. verb) distinction is likely insufficient to displace general use of HIE as both noun and verb. See HIE, HRE, LHII, RHIO

HIMSS - Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society

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HIPAA - The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) was enacted by the U.S. Congress in 1996. HIPAA protects health insurance coverage for workers and their families when they change or lose their jobs. HIPAA requires the establishment of national standards for electronic health care transactions and national identifiers for providers, health insurance plans, and employers. HIPAA also addresses the security and privacy of health data and defines Protected Health Information (PHI). See PHI

HIS - Hospital Information System, typically used for patient registration, admission, transfer and discharge, as well as billing and sometimes also laboratory and pharmacy functions. See EHR

HISB - The Health Informatics Standards Board was formed by ANSI in 1996, and was replaced by HITSP in 2005. See ANSI, SDO

HISP - Health Information Service Provider. See NHIN Direct

HISPC - ("hiss-pick") The Healthcare Information Security and Privacy Collaboration was a multi-disciplinary partnership of government and private sector participants formed to assess and develop plans to address variations in organization-level business policies and state laws that affect privacy and security practices which may pose challenges to interoperable health information exchange. See CalPSAB

HITECH - A U.S. law passed in 2009, whose full title is the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act. See ARRA, REC

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HITSP - ("hits-pea") The Healthcare Information Technology Standards Panel, organized under ANSI, was created in 2005 under a contract with the Office of the National Coordinator (ONC). HITSP operated as a cooperative partnership between the public and private sectors. The Panel was formed for the purpose of harmonizing and integrating standards to meet clinical and business needs for sharing information among organizations and systems in healthcare. HITSP's contract with HHS concluded on April 30, 2010. See ANSI, HHS, ONC

HL7 - Health Level 7, an accredited Standards Developing Organization (SDO) operating in the healthcare arena.

Home Page - The index (or Home) page of a website on the World Wide Web. Also used for the index page of a private intranet website. See W3C

HPSA - ("hip-suh") Health Professional Shortage Areas as defined by HRSA are based on geographic area, population group and facility presence as criteria. See HRSA, MUA

HRE - Health Record Exchange. Older variant on HIE, now rare. See HIE, LHII, RHIO

HRSA - ("her-suh") Health Resources and Services Administration, a major agency in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. See HHS

HSP See HISP

HSSP - Healthcare Standards Specification Project, a joint effort from OMG and HL7. See EIS, HL7, OMG

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HTML - HyperText Markup Language is a text and image formatting computer language designed for the creation of content containing hypertext links in an Internet environment. HTML was defined by Sir Tim Berners-Lee at CERN in 1990, giving rise to browsers and the World Wide Web. See CERN, Hypertext, W3C, WWW

HTTP - HyperText Transfer Protocol, an application layer method to transfer information on the World Wide Web. HTTP is a stateless protocol See HTTPS, Protocol, Stateless Protocol

HTTPS - Not a formal protocol itself, HTTPS refers to a normal HTTP interaction conducted via an encrypted and secure transport layer, such as SSL. See SSL

Hyperlink - A clickable link (typically a word, or a phrase, or an image) that a user selects (e.g., with a mouse) to access an alternate web page or document. See HTML

Hypertext - A term coined by Ted Nelson in 1965, referring to earlier work by Vannevar Bush. Hypertext links infuse information with an ituitive but nonlinear branching structure. Experimentation with the hypertext concept led to the development of HTML in 1990, which is the basis of the World Wide Web. See HTML, Hyperlink, WWW


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	Health Informatics Glossary A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z HAN - Health Alert Network. Hardhats - The website and mailing list maintained by a virtual community for users of the VistA software. See VistA Hardware - The physical electronic components (e.g., computer, server, switch, etc.), as opposed to the software that is installed to run on the hardware. HCFA - Many years ago the Health Care Financing Administration was renamed the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). See CMS HEDIS - The Health Plan Employer Data and Information Set (HEDIS) Measures are quality measures designed to help measure how well health plans follow care standards for prevention and treatment. top HHS - United States Department of Health and Human Services is the cabinet level agency assigned to protect the health of all Americans and to provide human services. Major operating units within HHS with regard to health informatics include: AHRQ, CDC, CMS, FDA, HRSA, IHS, and NIH. See AHRQ, CDC, CMS, FDA, HRSA, IHS, NCVHS, NIH, ONC HIE - Health Information Exchange. Recently ONC sought to limit the use of HIE as a verb-only term, and to adopt the cumbersome variant "HIO" as the noun-only counterpart term. Unfortunately, this effort has gained insufficient traction in field use, leading to terminology ambiguity. Based on current trends HIE is likely to survive as the single multipurpose term (noun + verb), and HIO is likely to join "RHIO" and "LHII" as deprecated terminology forks. See HIO, HRE, LHII, NAHIT, ONC, RHIO HIE-AB - Health Information Exchange Advisory Board, established in 2009 by California HHS. See CHHS HIO - Health Information Organization. Introduced recently as the formal noun-only counterpart term to HIE (the verb-only term). Field adoption of the HIO vs. HIE (noun vs. verb) distinction is likely insufficient to displace general use of HIE as both noun and verb. See HIE, HRE, LHII, RHIO HIMSS - Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society top HIPAA - The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) was enacted by the U.S. Congress in 1996. HIPAA protects health insurance coverage for workers and their families when they change or lose their jobs. HIPAA requires the establishment of national standards for electronic health care transactions and national identifiers for providers, health insurance plans, and employers. HIPAA also addresses the security and privacy of health data and defines Protected Health Information (PHI). See PHI HIS - Hospital Information System, typically used for patient registration, admission, transfer and discharge, as well as billing and sometimes also laboratory and pharmacy functions. See EHR HISB - The Health Informatics Standards Board was formed by ANSI in 1996, and was replaced by HITSP in 2005. See ANSI, SDO HISP - Health Information Service Provider. See NHIN Direct HISPC - ("hiss-pick") The Healthcare Information Security and Privacy Collaboration was a multi-disciplinary partnership of government and private sector participants formed to assess and develop plans to address variations in organization-level business policies and state laws that affect privacy and security practices which may pose challenges to interoperable health information exchange. See CalPSAB HITECH - A U.S. law passed in 2009, whose full title is the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act. See ARRA, REC top HITSP - ("hits-pea") The Healthcare Information Technology Standards Panel, organized under ANSI, was created in 2005 under a contract with the Office of the National Coordinator (ONC). HITSP operated as a cooperative partnership between the public and private sectors. The Panel was formed for the purpose of harmonizing and integrating standards to meet clinical and business needs for sharing information among organizations and systems in healthcare. HITSP's contract with HHS concluded on April 30, 2010. See ANSI, HHS, ONC HL7 - Health Level 7, an accredited Standards Developing Organization (SDO) operating in the healthcare arena. Home Page - The index (or Home) page of a website on the World Wide Web. Also used for the index page of a private intranet website. See W3C HPSA - ("hip-suh") Health Professional Shortage Areas as defined by HRSA are based on geographic area, population group and facility presence as criteria. See HRSA, MUA HRE - Health Record Exchange. Older variant on HIE, now rare. See HIE, LHII, RHIO HRSA - ("her-suh") Health Resources and Services Administration, a major agency in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. See HHS HSP See HISP HSSP - Healthcare Standards Specification Project, a joint effort from OMG and HL7. See EIS, HL7, OMG top HTML - HyperText Markup Language is a text and image formatting computer language designed for the creation of content containing hypertext links in an Internet environment. HTML was defined by Sir Tim Berners-Lee at CERN in 1990, giving rise to browsers and the World Wide Web. See CERN, Hypertext, W3C, WWW HTTP - HyperText Transfer Protocol, an application layer method to transfer information on the World Wide Web. HTTP is a stateless protocol See HTTPS, Protocol, Stateless Protocol HTTPS - Not a formal protocol itself, HTTPS refers to a normal HTTP interaction conducted via an encrypted and secure transport layer, such as SSL. See SSL Hyperlink - A clickable link (typically a word, or a phrase, or an image) that a user selects (e.g., with a mouse) to access an alternate web page or document. See HTML Hypertext - A term coined by Ted Nelson in 1965, referring to earlier work by Vannevar Bush. Hypertext links infuse information with an ituitive but nonlinear branching structure. Experimentation with the hypertext concept led to the development of HTML in 1990, which is the basis of the World Wide Web. See HTML, Hyperlink, WWW

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Health Informatics Glossary