Misys Open Source Solutions (“MOSS”), a division of Misys plc, the world’s first fully open source, standards based health information exchange solutions provider, has succeeded in passing the stringent IHE (Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise) testing protocols at the Chicago Connectathon. This extends MOSS success in passing all the IHE tests for the last 4 years.

The MOSS HIE is built to be compliant with existing national standards. The fundamental objective of the Misys Connect™ Exchange platform is to provide a secure infrastructure to exchange patient health information in order to advance the quality, safety and efficiency of healthcare delivery through the coordination of care between community participants. The platform is a critical element of the HIE infrastructure that provides clinicians and other members of the healthcare community with the right information at the right time by making patient information available across organizational boundaries. It facilitates and streamlines the sharing of patient information throughout an HIE community.

During the IHE Connectathon, held in Chicago earlier this month, certifiers reviewed and passed each profile that MOSS had tested. This year, those components included:

•     Cross Enterprise Document Sharing (XDS Registry and Repository)
•     Cross Community Patient Discovery (XCPD)

Previously certified components from MOSS that comply with IHE profiles include Patient Identifier Cross-Reference and Patient Demographic Query (PIX/PDQ), Audit Trail Node Authentication (ATNA), and Document Metadata Subscription (DSUB) along with Cross-Community Access (XCA) and Cross-User Authentication (XUA).

The Misys Connect™ Exchange, which is the collection of the open source assets, is the first fully open source exchange offered anywhere in the world. The software is offered under the commercially friendly Apache v. 2.0 license. MOSS offers fully supported versions as part of the enterprise offerings.

“This is 4th consecutive year for MOSS at IHE Connectathon.” said Konda Mullapudi, Director of Development at Misys. “Health Information Exchange is the next big thing in health information technology and will enable all the disparate EHR and EMR systems to work together so that coordination-of-care at the community-level will become achievable. Having our components certified at the Connectathon demonstrates that we conform to all the standards. By leveraging our open source community, we are able to keep our costs lower and pass on that value to our customers. And having Connectathon certification shows that our components are just as good as any proprietary vendor.”

dbMotion has announced that its interoperability platform has been selected by the Unity Health System in New York to facilitate far-reaching health information exchange efforts. The dbMotion™ Solution will connect disparate technologies across the enterprise, extend Unity Health’s advanced patient-centered medical home (PCMH) capability, and advance the organization’s robust care management and population health initiatives as part of a NY State funded initiative called the Unity Community Diabetes Collaborative.

“The ability to access and use patient information is essential to the delivery of quality of care,” says Margaret Donahue, MD, CMIO of Unity Health System. “The dbMotion platform will serve as the foundation by providing a longitudinal patient record to support our efforts to connect with our employed providers.  It will also leverage the local Regional Health Information Organization (RHIO) to improve communications with providers across the community and state as well.”

The dbMotion implementation will allow semantic interoperability among Unity Health System’s 70 locations including hospitals (over 300 beds), primary care and specialty ambulatory practices, long-term care and home health professionals, as well as a cohort of 300 community providers. The Rochester-based IDN currently uses Cerner inpatient and NextGen ambulatory electronic health records (EHR). dbMotion will also be linked to other systems including solutions supporting Nursing Homes, Home Health, a reference lab that serves Unity and others in the community, a new EHR for dialysis and ancillary systems for Document Management, radiology and other departments.

Data captured by and stored in these disparate HIT solutions—regardless of format or nomenclature—will be harmonized and delivered into each clinician’s typical workflow when and where they need it. With the core interoperability platform, Unity Health will also deploy dbMotion Collaborate, an application that gives providers a unified and up-to-date “snapshot” of a patient’s care pathway on their desktop—including encounters, admissions, lab results, etc.—even when they are not the ordering physician.

The collaborative is an initiative that includes deployment of dbMotion along with a multitude of other HIT systems including several ambulatory EHR systems, an enterprise master patient identifier (eMPI) from IBM, decision support to help clinicians identify and close gaps in care, and solutions for patient education and engagement.

“Because of dbMotion’s semantic capabilities, providers and care managers will have access to coherent and holistic patient information that is meaningful and actionable,” notes John Glynn, VP and CIO of Unity Health System. “dbMotion will become a critical part of our IT strategy, which will focus on improving communications with physicians.  They will be able to analyze patient-specific health trends at the point of care, as well as put data into a broader, population-centric context. We anticipate that dbMotion’s Collaborate will prove particularly valuable to Unity’s diabetes patient management program by helping identify and close gaps in care.”

“In addition to creating health information exchange within the Unity IDN, the implementation of the dbMotion Solution will also enable Unity to more effectively participate in regional initiatives such as the local Rochester RHIO, expansion of the Unity PCMH model, and community efforts to reduce unnecessary readmissions and costs”, remarks Al Kinel, President of Strategic Interests, a consulting company that helped secure funding from NY State and is managing the complex program.

“Unity Health System is truly a visionary organization,” says Peter McClennen, president of dbMotion North America. “Not only is leadership committed to connecting its own community, it is moving ahead to integrate with an even broader network—truly a futuristic model. We are excited to be part of it.”

iMedicor has announced it is adding esMD (Electronic Submission of Medical Data) and HIH (Health Information Handler) technology and certifications to iMedicor’s flagship service, the HIPAA-compliant Social Health Information Exchange. With this latest enhancement, iMedicor puts doctors, hospitals and other healthcare providers well ahead of the CMS adoption deadline for the computer-to-computer exchange of protected health information—and can dramatically cut staff time and costs by moving providers away from paper-based transactions.

CMS and its contractors routinely issue millions of requests for claims, audit and other medical documentation. Without esMD capability, each request requires staff to find, copy and send pages and pages of paper documents by mail or fax – meaning a single request can tie up staff for hours. With iMedicor’s new esMD capability, staff can respond using a few clicks of the mouse.

iMedicor is able to offer this capability through a partnership with The SunCoast RHIO, a Health Information Exchange and Regional Health Information Organization that services the Southwest Region of Florida and is one of the oldest organizations of its kind in the state. The RHIO interacts with other organizations in Florida and in other states where its winter residents reside during other parts of the year.

Last week, iMedicor had announced the inclusion of the NHIN Direct project solution to its SocialHIE platform. The inclusion of the CMS esMD and HIH standards, technology and certification builds on the NHIN Direct project solution to benefit the entire healthcare community.

In addition to the transmission of data through the CMS system, doctors and hospitals within the SunCoast RHIO network will have access to many of the features and benefits that are currently available to members of iMedicor’s SocialHIE, including use of a secure social network that is coupled with a Health Information Exchange and addresses 100% of the Meaningful Use requirements for Interoperability between disparate Electronic Health Record (EHR) systems.

“We are very excited about our alliance with The SunCoast RHIO; it represents the next major step in establishing iMedicor’s SocialHIE as the most robust healthcare communications platform available today,” said Fred Zolla, iMedicor CEO. “With esMD and HIH certification delivered through NHIN Connect Gateways, iMedicor can now provide doctors and large healthcare organizations with the highest levels of security and functionality.”

Mr. Zolla noted that implementation and use of the most advanced health information technology continues to evolve under the supervision of The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) and The Center for Medicaid and Medicare Services (CMS). “With a strong partner like SunCoast RHIO, I am confident that SocialHIE will always be compliant with the highest standards and regulations established by ONC, and at the same time maintain its flexibility to offer communications options designed to fit each provider’s own day-to-day clinical work flow.”

“Our new association with iMedicor’s SocialHIE allows The SunCoast RHIO to build upon the iMedicor technology with our planned certification of the CMS esMD and HIH platform beginning in April 2012,” added Louis Galterio, CEO and Managing Director of SunCoast RHIO. “Being an HIH is a natural fit for us and allows the provider community a direct way to address reporting, security and compliance so that the revenue cycle is not slowed down by the introduction of new regs. In fact, our solution gives our participants new tools to enhance revenue. The iMedicor SocialHIE package is the perfect delivery method that wraps all the new standards and regulations into an easy-to-use format that we know the healthcare community will respond to in a very favorable manner.”

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker has announced he will not pursue the implementation of a health insurance exchange and has turned down Early Innovator Grant funding of $37 million dollars from the federal government.

“I have directed the Department of Health Services to notify the federal government that we will discontinue any development on a health exchange and that Wisconsin will turn down funding from the Early Innovator Grant program,” said Governor Walker. “Stopping the encroachment of ObamaCare in our state, which has the potential to have a devastating impact on Wisconsin’s economy, is a top priority. Wisconsin has been a leader and innovator in health care reform for two decades, and we have achieved a high level of health insurance coverage without federal mandates. When job creators and Wisconsin families are facing difficult times it doesn’t make sense to commit to a federal health care mandate that will result in hidden taxes for Wisconsin families, increased health care costs and insurance premiums, and more uncertainty in the private sector.”

A check of the Governor’s website makes the following claim about his plan to make healthcare affordable in the state:

• Wisconsin Democrats Have A Million Signatures To Recall Governor Scott Walker (alan.com)

ChartSwap, a Houston-based SalesForce ISV Partner, will go-live with an interesting new online record ordering and exchange solution. ChartSwap, which is built on a Force.com platform, offers healthcare providers free access to a HIPAA-compliant electronic chart exchange network that they claim will drastically reduce the administrative burden associated with responding to third-party requests for medical records.

As healthcare providers transition to EMR solutions, they often discover that they are without a secure electronic method of exchanging records with third party requestors, who are typically not authorized to access Health Information Exchanges. ChartSwap was developed in response to this need as a secure solution for providers to receive record requests and exchange medical information with requestors, including attorneys, insurers, and regulatory compliance entities, as well as other providers.

Geared to a growing population of medical providers who are technically savvy and eager to increase the efficiency of their practices, ChartSwap incorporates elements of both a professional social network and a traditional HIE. Providers are able to sign-up with ChartSwap directly, or may receive email invitations from other ChartSwap members, including other providers as well as third-party requestors. Early adopters are incentivized through a referral program that rewards referring parties with revenue sharing opportunities – a move that ChartSwap CEO Randy Haynes hopes will encourage viral growth.

“There are over 800,000 physicians’ offices in the U.S., each receiving an average of 20 requests a week. The ChartSwap solution will allow them to respond to those requests via the cloud and to share records with other physicians’ offices for no cost and a fraction of the effort currently required,” says Randy Haynes, founder and CEO of ChartSwap.

Once a provider is an authorized ChartSwap member, they can log-in to review requests and authorizations, securely upload requested records, apply an electronic signature to any required forms, and specify the amount of the medical record fee. For providers who haven’t yet transitioned to an electronic medical records system, ChartSwap offers a secure fax to scan solution for transmitting paper records.

InterSystems Corporation has announced that InterSystems HealthShare™ has been selected as the technology platform for the Illinois Health Information Exchange.  The estimated value of the contract is $7.25 million.

“Building our electronic health information exchange is a major step in transforming health care and helping patients,” Governor Quinn said. “Statewide access to electronic records means that vital patient information will be instantly available to doctors and hospitals when it is needed most, improving health care delivery and saving lives.”

Development of the Illinois HIE is funded through a federal grant program established to allow states to assist health care providers and hospitals with the exchange of electronic health records (EHRs). Illinois received $18.8 million over four years to develop this capacity, and the first phase of exchange services is expected to be available statewide in April 2012.

Comprehensive, Massively Scalable Solution

The statewide HIE network will provide seamless clinical information flow to more than 50,000 healthcare providers, payers and state agencies. It is expected to serve a patient population of 13 million individuals, according to Laura Zaremba, Director of the Illinois Office of Health Information Technology.

InterSystems HealthShare is a breakthrough software solution that provides the massive scalability needed to support Illinois’ large patient population and a rich feature set that goes beyond basic HIE and interoperability requirements. It provides a unified strategic informatics platform designed to fulfill the requirements of regional health information exchanges and IDNs both now and in the future.

A globally recognized industry leader, InterSystems has a track record of success with highly complex connected health technology initiatives. Sweden, for example, is using HealthShare to create a National Patient Summary record for every Swedish resident.  This record is a longitudinal, comprehensive summary of a patient’s medical history available to clinicians across Sweden. And, HealthShare is the platform of choice the entire state of Rhode Island and for three regional health information organizations in New York. “We look forward to working with InterSystems to create a connected health care technology infrastructure that will improve patient care in Illinois” Zaremba said.

“InterSystems is committed to working in tandem with the Illinois Office of Health Information Technology to deliver the most efficient, rapid, secure exchange of patient information possible,” said Dominick Bizzarro, InterSystems HealthShare Business Manager.

Sequel Systems, Inc., a dynamic, service-oriented healthcare technology company has just announced their physician practice referral program. The program offers a $500 AMEX gift card as a reward to our patrons who refer physician practices looking to adopt an EMR/EHR/EPM system.

“This reward is simply a token of our appreciation for the referring physician practices that have contributed to our ongoing efforts helping to expand our services; it would give us a unique opportunity to inform new clients about our expertise and state-of-the-art software product. It is also an acknowledgement to the bonding relationship and the trust they have in our services: a motivation for others to become part of our growing family of SequelMed software users,” said Khurshid Mughal, CEO and President of Sequel Systems.

By launching this nationwide program, the company intends to tap in to physicians who are not using an EMR/EHR/EPM system in their current practice or are looking to switch vendors. The referring member from the physician practice is required to fill in a form; containing contact information which in turn they would pass along to Sequel Systems. Should the practice that was referred decide to choose Sequel Systems as their vendor of choice; the referring member can earn a $500 AMEX gift card as a reward. The award money would be due on the successful completion of the sale.

SequelMed’s suite of products are comprehensive, first-rate solutions which automate tasks and provide instant access to electronic medical records. Within the EMR/EHR, built-in decision support tools and alerts facilitate physicians in capturing decision-making rationale. It works seamlessly over multiple systems, shared networks and integrates with wireless technologies. Electronic prescribing (eRx) and voice recognition capabilities enhance efficiency and reduce a practice’s operating costs. Customizable panels and intuitive templates make SequelMed EMR/EHR a perfect choice for practices of all types and sizes.

Florida healthcare patients soon will receive more collaborative and streamlined care with improved safety, outcomes, privacy and efficiency thanks to the launch of a new, secure, cloud-based, statewide health information exchange (HIE) network.

Leaders from a new Florida company, HIE Networks, the Florida Hospital Association and the Florida Medical Association joined forces at a news conference to announce the creation of the Florida Health Data Network (FHDN), which will make patient medical records easily accessible to authorized healthcare providers.

FHDN is a statewide network developed, solely funded and operated by HIE Networks LLC, a private, physician-owned, national provider of integrated digital medical records technology.  Based in Tallahassee, Fla., HIE Networks grew out of its co-founders’ successful piloting of the Big Bend Regional Healthcare Information Organization (BBRHIO), a health information exchange network serving nine counties in North Florida which has been nationally-recognized as one of the top 12 regional HIEs in the country.

“One of the greatest challenges to providing efficient, cost-effective, high-quality health care is access to patients’ medical history by health care providers,” said Dr. Dan Kaelin, co-founder and Chief Medical Officer of HIE Networks.  “The Florida Health Data Network will change that forever.”

FHDN can connect hospitals, physicians, laboratories, pharmacies and insurers without geographic boundaries using “cloud” technology that allows for the networking and sharing of patient clinical records in a secure, fully integrated, health information exchange, said Allen Byington, co-founder and CEO of HIE Networks.

“The core HIE technology allows for providers, hospitals and communities to avoid bearing the high capital cost of acquiring and maintaining the initial technology, requiring only a modest monthly service fee,” said Byington. “Leveraging the FHDN technology, providers only have to fund their Electronic Medical Record (EMR) vendors’ interface cost and a small staff-training fee. Our goal is to significantly reduce the capital barrier to HIE adoption nationally.”

“By exchanging patient clinical records in a robust HIE network, physicians can eradicate inefficiencies, duplication of services and medical errors,” said Kaelin.

“Hospital emergency rooms can better provide prompt diagnosis and treatment.  Pharmacists can be certain that a new prescription doesn’t conflict with an existing one. Lab and radiology results can be shared and accessed instantly for prompt evaluation and treatment.  Patients have more knowledge and control of their treatments and procedures.  Elimination of duplicative testing and elimination of waste will help streamline treatment, reduce delivery costs, reduce errors and, most importantly, improve outcomes and save lives.”

“Another unique aspect and value of the FHDN,” said Byington, ”is that it is community-based, local-provider-driven and compatible with other local groups and networks – including BBRHIO and the Gulf Coast Health Information Exchange based in Manatee County – united under HIE Networks’ core HIE technology umbrella.”

The HIE Networks’ endorsements by the Florida Hospital Association (FHA), the Florida Medical Association (FMA) and other provider affiliations will help provide a trusted roadmap and pathway for providers to confidently address their HIE needs, says Byington. HIE Networks is the only endorsed HIE vendor for FHA and FMA.

“The Florida Hospital Association supports local-provider-driven health information exchange based on national standards,” said FHA President Bruce Rueben. “Hospitals, physicians and other healthcare providers collaborating to leverage health information exchange improve the coordination and quality of care for patients.  FHA is pleased to collaborate with HIE Networks and the Florida Medical Association in the expansion of patient-focused health information exchange.”

“The FMA conducted an exhaustive search among dozens of international, national, regional and local health information exchange vendors with the primary intent to identify and qualify a health information exchange solution that would preserve physician stewardship of sensitive personal health information for the benefit of our patients,” said Dr. Chris Pittman, chairman of FMA’s Health Information Technology Committee.  “The FMA identified several excellent vendor finalists; however, HIE Networks prevailed for several reasons: HIE Networks enjoys a multi-year track record as a proven and sustainable community-wide health information exchange model, has demonstrable and deployed solutions that meet physician and patient needs at the point of facilitating high-quality care, an ability to transmit electronic patient information at low cost to both physicians and patients and they are committed to local, provider-driven HIE that promises to preserve the time-honored physician-patient relationship.”

Byington stressed that security and privacy issues are paramount with FHDN.

“Robust HIE actually improves patient privacy by reducing unauthorized access to patient data,” said Byington. “With HIE, we can prevent records from being faxed to the wrong locations and know exactly when and who accessed a patient record.

“The key is that we’re not a monolithic statewide HIE organization, but a unifier, integrator and consolidator of local providers and HIE organizations,” added Byington. “We connect any provider or organization and build uniformity, consistency and accessibility as needed to share information across communities, regions and, ultimately, states.  We’ve also added Direct-enabled, secure messaging to FHDN; however, unlike other Direct messaging platforms, FHDN-facilitated messages can be automatically integrated as a part of the patient HIE clinical record rather than as a stand-alone, non-relational communication.”  Direct is a national, secure-messaging platform used by some physicians and other medical providers.  “With this capability, a single provider login is all that’s needed to access patient clinical records and send secure communications to those not yet participating in an HIE.”

HIE Networks’ FHDN currently has records for nearly one million unique Florida patients representing about 5 percent of Florida’s population. In addition, FHDN already processes more than 32 million messages and responds to more than 800,000 user queries.  Current community commitments are expected to increase FHDN’s records to about 12 percent of the state’s population by second quarter 2012.  “We expect that percentage to grow exponentially over the next year and beyond,” said Byington.

Nationally, the concept of an interconnected, private and secure electronic medical record (EMR) system is getting more attention, thanks in part to the 2009 American Recovery & Reinvestment Act (ARRA, also known as the stimulus bill) which set aside more than $20 billion for incentives to health care providers to deploy and use such systems.  During the past year, many more providers have come on board the EMR train, says Byington, and many more are finally starting to see the benefits of HIE.

HIE Networks’ strategic partnership with Über Operations – also a Tallahassee-based company – will address the large-scale integration requirements needed to program EMR interfaces of providers statewide and beyond. “Über Operations’ existing work with the Florida Department of Health and healthcare organizations throughout the nation position the FHDN to streamline the on-boarding and interfacing process for providers and trading partners,” said Byington.

“For the past seven years, we have focused on providing expert and innovative data integration services to both public and private healthcare organizations throughout the nation,” said Eduardo Gonzalez Loumiet, Managing Director of Über Operations.  “With this new network, we will be in a position to implement state-of-the-art technology to connect local providers, ultimately improving the health care of millions.”

HealthBridge announced today its selection of Clinical Architecture’s Symedical Server for its new advanced health information exchange (HIE) infrastructure. The selection of this new technology is part of a series of HIE infrastructure enhancements at HealthBridge aimed at improving information flow for patient care and prepare for new meaningful use and payment reform requirements.

The flow of information among different health care providers is critical to improving the quality of patient care and reducing unnecessary costs. As the use of electronic health record (EHR) systems grows, the ability to securely exchange information among different EHR systems must grow also. Too often different IT systems cannot share data easily because clinical terms and code sets are handled differently within each system.

For instance, a patient with diabetes may have had her blood tested by a number of providers, and every one of them may use a different EHR with a different code for hemoglobin A1c. A health care provider needs to know how a patient’s hemoglobin A1c has changed over time to ensure the patient is in good health. Yet, the inability to share information among different EHR systems could prevent providers from having a complete view of a patient’s information.

“Patients often get care from many different health care providers,” said Keith Hepp, interim CEO for HealthBridge. “That means that information systems that support patient care need to share information in a smart and highly reliable way. The software from Clinical Architecture will ensure that complex health information from different systems is translated and mapped appropriately for sound decision making.”

Clinical Architecture’s Symedical Server is software that in essence helps translate data accurately and quickly between information systems. This new software will enable the mapping, management and exchange of large, complex data sets among different systems, serving as a “Rosetta stone” that enables incompatible systems to “talk” to one another.

Clinical Architecture’s Symedical Server will also support health care providers’ quality improvement efforts by translating and mapping information from many different sources to a common set of codes that can be accurately and effectively evaluated, analyzed, and acted upon. This capability will be important for health care providers interested in forming an accountable care organization or participating in various payment reform initiatives.

“There’s more to health information exchange than just passing information between systems,” said Charlie Harp, CEO for Clinical Architecture. “HealthBridge is making a real difference in the lives of patients and their doctors by improving the quality and reliability of shared medical information. The advancements HealthBridge is making will improve care and reduce costs by giving providers a more complete picture of their patient’s health status.”

HealthBridge and a group of Greater Cincinnati partners are working together on the Greater Cincinnati Beacon Collaboration (GCBC), a collaboration aimed at dramatically impacting health care cost, quality outcomes and clinical improvements related to care transitions, pediatric asthma, and adult diabetes. A key means of achieving the Beacon goals is more complete patient information for health care providers from across the community. This announcement is part of the Greater Cincinnati Beacon Collaboration’s effort to focus on care transitions, pediatric asthma, adult diabetes, and consumer engagement.

A group of states and vendors focused on eliminating the barriers to sharing electronic health records today issued a set of technical specifications to standardize connections between healthcare providers, health information exchanges (HIEs) and other data-sharing partners. The specifications are now available for the public to view at www.interopwg.org.

The objective of the EHR/HIE Interoperability Workgroup is to define a single set of standardized, easy-to-implement connections to increase the adoption of EHRs and HIE services. The effort leveraged existing published standards for interoperability from the Office of the National Coordinator (ONC). Ultimately, the specifications aim to remove impediments that make it difficult for EHRs to connect to HIEs, including technical specification differences, wait times for interface development, and high costs.

The workgroup was originally formed by the New York eHealth Collaborative (NYeC) and is comprised of its federally designated counterparts in seven states (California, Colorado, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, and Oregon) representing approximately 30% of the country’s population.  The eight EHR vendor members include Allscripts, eClinicalWorks, e-MDs, Greenway Medical Technologies, McKesson Physician Practice Solutions, NextGen Healthcare, Sage Healthcare Division, and Siemens Healthcare. In addition, there are three HIE services vendors participating, including Axolotl, InterSystems, and Medicity.

Doug Fridsma, MD and PhD, Director of the Office of Standards & Interoperability at the Office of the National Coordinator of Health Information Technology, commented, “I am encouraged by and excited about this type of collaboration, which has the potential to advance real-world pilots, implementation and feedback on standards for health information exchange. The results of this kind of initiative can help us advance health IT nationwide.”

“This is a crucial step,” said David Whitlinger, Executive Director of NYeC. “We started this as a New York State initiative, but we soon realized that many other states were facing the same interoperability challenges and many of the EHR and HIE vendors were also looking for clarity from the marketplace to define their product roadmaps. Collectively, the group is now looking forward to widespread adoption and market preference for the products that employ the specifications.”

The first set of specifications focuses on two use cases and the detailed data and metadata specification for a compliant Continuity of Care Document. The first use case, Statewide Send and Receive Patient Record Exchange, describes how encrypted health information can be transmitted over the internet. The second, the Statewide Patient Data Inquiry Service Use Case, describes the clinician’s ability to query an HIE for relevant data on a specific patient.

The workgroup members collaborated to leverage existing HL7 standards, technical frameworks from IHE International, and HIE implementations to provide a fully detailed implementation specification. The implementation specifications were also aligned with Beacon community guidelines to be capable of gathering information required for reporting to the ONC.

“I applaud the work that the EHR/HIE Interoperability Workgroup is doing to move states from implementation guides to production. I expect that the flexibility and agility of the EHR/HIE Interoperability Workgroup will serve as an ideal laboratory for standards that are rapidly evolving,” stated John Halamka, MD, Co-Chair of the HIT Standards Committee, Chief Information Officer of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Chief Information Officer at Harvard Medical School, Chairman of the New England Healthcare Exchange Network.

Photo By kelp