Sharing of Health Information Progresses, but Privacy Lags

A year after a federal advisory committee recommended how health information could be shared, the country has moved a long way to harmonizing standards and relaxing regulations that barred hospitals from promoting health IT, but it still needs to implement measures to protect patients' information.

In October 2005, a commission on systemic interoperability laid out a series of recommendations for connecting the fragmented systems that hold Americans' health information.