CHICAGO – The Social Security Administration is realizing significant reductions in the time required to obtain medical records to support the processing of disability claims through the use of the Nationwide Health Information Network (NHIN) CONNECT solution developed by Harris Corporation. CONNECT is an implementation of the NHIN specification that enables federal agencies and healthcare providers to quickly and securely exchange patient information electronically over the network. The announcement was made during the HIMSS'09 Healthcare IT Conference and Exhibition being held April 4-8 at McCormick Place in Chicago.

In February, the Social Security Administration (SSA) was the first federal agency to go into limited production on NHIN using CONNECT, in partnership with MedVirginia - one of the most electronically integrated communities of healthcare providers in the country. During 2009, the number of federal agencies participating in CONNECT will be expanded from 6 to as many as 14. In addition to the SSA, limited production pilots are planned by other federal agencies.

"The Social Security Administration is a federal leader leveraging healthcare information technology to accomplish their nationally important mission," said

Jim Traficant , vice president of Harris Healthcare Solutions. "CONNECT delivers secure and seamless health information exchange between federal agencies and with providers in the private sector while assuring patient privacy. CONNECT has the capacity to transform care and benefits delivery for people in need, including our wounded warriors, veterans and their families."

CONNECT consists of 10 core NHIN gateway services and a software development kit that enables providers to customize their interface. The software was released for general availability by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in February. As a result, federal agencies and healthcare providers can create adapters to connect their edge systems to the NHIN and thereby maximize usefulness and productivity within their specific enterprise.

Harris - teamed with partners Agilex Technologies, Inc., Sun Microsystems, Inc., and Scenpro, Inc. - was awarded the original development and integration contract for CONNECT in March of 2008 by the Federal Health Architecture. Harris is also demonstrating CONNECT at its booth during HIMSS'09.

Harris Healthcare Solutions provides enterprise intelligence solutions and services for commercial and government customers, including systems integration, intelligent infrastructure, advanced visualization and display, enterprise digital content management, and IT services solutions. Harris products, systems, and services improve health outcomes by assuring that critical medical information is delivered with security and privacy to the right person, on the right device, at the point of care.