Health Information and Applications
Working Group Charter
September 1994

The Working Group on Health Information and
Applications is a working group within the Committee on
Applications and Technology of the Administration's
Information Infrastructure Task Force (IITF).  The mission
of the Health Information and Applications
Working Group is to foster the development, deployment and
use of the National Information  Infrastructure
(NII) to improve the health of all Americans.  The group
will identify and make recommendations on policy and
technical issues that affect the design, development, and
use of the NII for health, including the following:

* commonality issues with other NII national challenge
applications;

* interoperability standards and technology for the exchange
of clinical, administrative, personal, and public health
data;

* barriers and incentives to the development and use of the
NII for  health;

* the roles of the public and private sectors.

The Working Group will also serve to facilitate
collaboration among the different Federal agencies that are
funding the development, use, and  evaluation of health
applications of the NII.  The Working Group will address
improvement in health information and applications from
multiple angles, including government-funded health
programs, rural health, the viability of commercial products
and services supporting health care, and the changes
necessary to enable continuous quality improvement in the
marketplace.

Members of the Working Group are representatives from
Federal agencies, departments, and organizations with
extensive interest and activities in health applications of
the National Information
Infrastructure.

To date, the group has had participation from the
Department of  Agriculture (Extension Service), the
Department of Commerce (National  Institute of
Standards and Technology, National Telecommunications and
Information Administration), the Department of
Defense (Advanced Research Projects Agency), the
Department of Education, the  Department of Health and
Human Services (Office of the Secretary,  Health Care
Financing Administration, the Public Health Service and its
agencies), the Department of Veterans Affairs
(Veterans Health Administration), the National
Aeronautics and Space Administration, the  National
Security Agency, and the Office of Management and
Budget.  The Working Group will work closely with other
working groups and committees of the IITF and with related
interagency organizations, such  as the
National Science and Technology Council's High
Performance  Computing and Communications Program.

The Working Group will also encourage interaction with major 
stakeholders in the health care industry, such as payors,
providers, consumer interest groups, state and local
governments, and with  technology and systems developers.

The Working Group will accomplish its mission by undertaking
a number of specific activities. Planned activities include:

* producing white papers on specific policy and technical
issues;

* developing a vision of how using the NII can help to
contain health care costs, improve the quality of health
services, increase access to health care, and improve the
Nation's health;

* facilitating interagency collaboration on
  - large scale demonstration projects requiring the
integration of multiple components
  - associated Federal research and development activities;

* identifying opportunities for public-private partnerships;

* establishing model evaluation criteria and general
guidelines for the funding and approval of demonstration
projects;

* identifying ways to promote technology transfer;

* maintaining the health component of the IITF's
applications inventory;

* supporting the Administration's health care reform
efforts.

The Working Group will formulate specific goals for each of
its areas of endeavor.

The full membership of the Working Group will meet
regularly. Subgroups will be organized to accomplish
specific tasks and will meet as needed.