Press Releases

Arkansas Office of Health Information Technology Selects OptumInsight for Statewide Health Information Exchange Services

ewatts@axolotl.com (Elvia Watts) — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 07:00:00 +0000

Axolotl HIE facilitates sharing of electronic health information among health care providers across Arkansas

LITTLE ROCK, ARK. Feb. 9, 2012 - The Arkansas Office of Health Information Technology (OHIT) today announced that OptumInsight's health information exchange (HIE) technology has been selected to build the infrastructure for the State Health Alliance for Records Exchange (SHARE), Arkansas's statewide health information exchange.

Ray Scott, who was appointed by Governor Mike Beebe to serve as the state coordinator for health information technology and directs the activities of the OHIT said; "The selection of OptumInsight and their Axolotl HIE solution represents a major milestone in Arkansas's efforts to expand the use of electronic health information that will benefit patients, care providers and payers. OptumInsight's extensive experience in enabling the exchange of medical information about patients, who are treated by multiple unaffiliated health care providers, means better coordinated care and ultimately better health for Arkansans."

OHIT is the state-designated entity responsible for establishing the State Health Alliance for Records Exchange and for coordinating health information technology throughout the state. Through the use of federal and state funding, OHIT and SHARE's mission is to improve the quality of health for Arkansans by making the delivery of health care services more efficient and affordable, while improving patient safety. The state received $7.9 million in funding as part of the State Health Information Cooperative Agreement Program made available through the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC).

Using OptumInsight's Axolotl HIE solution, SHARE will create a secure infrastructure to connect disparate health information systems to facilitate the exchange of information with existing community and private HIEs as well as ambulatory electronic health record systems (EHR's) across the state. Participating physicians, authorized health services professionals, and hospital facilities will have the ability to exchange patients' clinical information securely and access up-to-date and historical medical information at the point of care. This information may include the patient's relevant clinical care summaries of diagnoses, treatments, lab test results, allergies, radiology images and medications from all care providers connected to SHARE.

SHARE will be implemented in phases. Phase 1 will provide secure messaging, which will facilitate and expand the secure, electronic movement and use of health information between unaffiliated health care providers. In Phase II, SHARE will evolve into a more robust health information exchange, giving all participating health care providers the ability to share patient information among hospitals, physicians and public health entities connected to the exchange. The benefits will include accurate and timely patient health care information available to care providers at the point of care, reduction of duplicate tests and medical errors to ultimately deliver safer, more affordable health care. Additional benefits to the patients will include electronic access to their own health information to promote more patient involvement in their care.

Through collaboration with the Arkansas Foundation for Medical Care and its division, HITArkansas, which serves as the Arkansas Regional Extension Center (REC), OHIT will provide strategies for assisting health care providers to quickly reach stage 1 meaningful use, as well as developing the infrastructure needed by labs, e-lab orders and structured lab results. Recognizing that physician adoption is the key to any successful HIE, OptumInsight partnered with the Arkansas Foundation for Medical Care and Oleen Pinnacle Healthcare Consulting, a national HIT healthcare consulting firm located in Little Rock, Ark. Oleen Pinnacle brings more than 20 years of HIT experience in hospital and ambulatory health information technology and most recent success with state and regional HIE deployments.

"The selection of OptumInsight to build the infrastructure for Arkansas's health information exchange is a tremendous step in improving health care through health information technology," said Ray Hanley, president and CEO of the Arkansas Foundation for Medical Care, the parent company of HITArkansas, the state's Regional Extension Center. "OHIT has been a great partner in our efforts to aid health care providers in the transition to electronic health records, and we look forward to the next steps in that process."

"OptumInsight is excited to work with the Arkansas Office of Health Information Technology to deploy a complete HIE infrastructure and solution that will make health care more efficient and affordable for care providers and patients, all while improving patient safety," said Glenn Keet, senior vice president of business development for OptumInsight. "OHIT will deploy a point to point network using Direct protocols as an adjunct to Axolotl's Clinical Messaging® between physicians and patients, and will also have the leading solution for enabling authorized access to complete medical records for patients regardless of where the patients have received their care."

The Arkansas Office of Health Information Technology is OptumInsight's tenth statewide HIE customer, after Health Information Network of Arizona, Michigan Health Information Network Shared Services in Michigan, HealthInsight in Nevada, Health Information Partnership for Tennessee (HIP TN), among other leading statewide (Idaho, Maryland, Nebraska, Utah and in partnership with Affiliated Computer Services Inc. Kentucky) Health Information Exchanges that have selected OptumInsight's Axolotl HIE solutions. Today, Axolotl HIE is connecting more than 55,000 physicians, 165,000 healthcare professionals, 375 hospitals, and 26 regional health information organizations (RHIOs) - including 5 Beacon Communities as part of the Beacon Community Cooperative Agreement Program.

The Axolotl HIE Solution
An HIE network connects all of the participating care providers and their patient record systems within its defined medical community - a hospital, independent delivery network (IDN), region or state. Once connected, patient-authorized participants can instantly receive and exchange their patient's clinical results as well as access a complete and up-to-date medical record at the point of care, directly from their system of choice. This supports clinical decisions and efforts to improve quality of care and patient safety.

The Axolotl HIE Solution from OptumInsight connects hundreds of thousands of health care professionals across statewide exchanges and regional health information organizations, as well as Beacon communities, accountable care organizations and independent delivery networks. For more information visit www.axolotl.com.

About the Arkansas Office of Health Information Technology
The Arkansas Office of Health Information Technology (OHIT) is responsible for establishing the State Health Alliance for Records Exchange (SHARE), the statewide interoperable health information exchange, and for coordinating health information technology activities throughout the state. Through the use of federal and state resources, OHIT and SHARE will improve the quality of health for Arkansans by enabling the more effective use of electronic health information technology to improve the delivery of healthcare services. For more information about OHIT, visit www.ohit.arkansas.gov ; for further information on SHARE, visit http://sharearkansas.com

About OptumInsight
OptumInsight provides health information, technology and consulting services. Commercial health plans, physicians, hospitals, life sciences companies, government agencies and other organizations that comprise the health care system depend on OptumInsight solutions and insights to improve their performance. OptumInsight is part of Optum, a leading information and technology-enabled health services company dedicated to making the health system work better for everyone. For more information, visit www.optuminsight.com.

About AFMC and HIT Arkansas
HITArkansas, a division of the Arkansas Foundation for Medical Care, is the federally designated Health Information Technology Regional Extension Center (HITREC) for the state of Arkansas. HITArkansas' purpose is to help health care providers in their use of health information technology by offering guidance, technical assistance and education of financial incentives associated with transitioning to the use of electronic health records (EHR's).

About Oleen Pinnacle Healthcare Consulting
Oleen Pinnacle is a national healthcare consulting firm focused solely on information systems with an expertise in the business and practice of healthcare. Our clients include all types of healthcare organizations, from integrated delivery systems to HMO's, medical practices, hospitals and State healthcare agencies. Since 1988, Oleen Pinnacle has assisted clients with every aspect of the information management process including project management, analysis, business process reengineering, implementations, conversions, custom programming, training, EDI, and facilities management. Oleen Pinnacle services clients from corporate offices in Little Rock, Arkansas.

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Annual IHE Connectathon Tests Validate OptumInsight Technologies’ Ability to Enable a More Connected Health System

ewatts@axolotl.com (Elvia Watts) — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 07:00:00 +0000

Tests confirm that OptumInsight innovations support Health IT Interoperability, which is essential to providing better-coordinated, higher-quality patient care

EDEN PRAIRIE, Minn., January 30, 2012 - OptumInsight's health information exchange and computer-assisted coding solutions have achieved the highest industry standards for enabling health system interoperability at the annual Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise (IHE) North American Connectathon. Tests performed at the event validated the abilities of OptumInsight's advanced health care technologies to help connect health care stakeholders and support better-coordinated, higher-quality patient care.

The annual IHE Connectathon promotes the adoption of IHE standards-based interoperability in commercially available health care IT systems. During the event, participating companies subjected their technologies to a series of tests of their abilities to connect and securely exchange information with other suppliers. The technologies must successfully complete IHE Profiles, meaning they process all the transactions for their respective roles in support of defined clinical-use cases.

Success in these tests is an important indicator that participating applications can support physicians, hospitals and other groups in state, regional and national health networks as they connect, share information and collaborate to enhance patient care and care outcomes.

OptumInsight completed testing of its Axolotl Open Access Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) platform for the following IHE integration profiles, which are cornerstones for enabling secure health information exchange:
• XDS.b (Cross Document Sharing-b) registration, distribution and access to health documents across health organizations
• PIXv3 (Patient Identifier Cross-Reference HL7 V3) patient identity cross-reference manager services
• PDQv3 (Patient Demographic Query HL7 V3 profile) patient demographic supplier
• XCA (Cross Community Access) record locator services to query for documents across a health community
• XCPD (Cross Community Patient Discovery) locate patient information across a health community

In addition, the company successfully demonstrated interoperability of its A-Life computer assisted coding Life solution via the HL7 CDA (Clinical Document Architecture) standard. This solution, powered by Optum's patented LifeCode® natural language processing (NLP) technology, enriches CDA documents with standardized ICD-9 (International Classification of Diseases, 9th Edition), CPT (Current Procedural Terminology) and HCPCS Level II (Healthcare Common Procedure Codes, Level II) codes.

"OptumInsight is committed to delivering technologies that make it easier and simpler for health professionals to connect, share information and collaborate to enhance patient care and improve the way the health system works," said Tom Boehning, senior vice president, OptumInsight. "The Connectathon tests validate that our solutions advance interoperability across local, regional and national health information networks, in support of those objectives."

OptumInsight will demonstrate its solutions and capabilities that support health system interoperability at the Interoperability Showcase of the Annual Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) Conference & Exhibition, Feb. 21-24 in Las Vegas.

For more information about Axolotl IHE integration can be found here.

About Optum
Optum is a leading information and technology-enabled health services business dedicated to making the health system work better for everyone. Optum is comprised of three companies - OptumHealth, OptumInsight and OptumRx - representing over 30,000 employees worldwide who collaborate to deliver integrated, intelligent solutions that work to modernize the health system, improve overall population health and build Sustainable Health Communities. Visit www.optum.com for more information.

Idaho Health Data Exchange Signs Agreement with Greenway Medical for Instant EHR Interoperability with the HIE

ewatts@axolotl.com (Elvia Watts) — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 07:00:00 +0000

Boise, Idaho, January 10, 2012 - The Idaho Health Data Exchange (IHDE), Idaho's state designated Health Information Exchange (HIE), announced today that it has signed an agreement with Greenway Medical Technologies, a provider of electronic health record (EHR), ambulatory healthcare and clinical research business solutions and services.

As part of this agreement, small and large physician practices across the state can easily participate and connect to the Idaho health information exchange without having to make modifications to their existing Greenway Medical EHRs, or build costly point-to-point interfaces to participate in the HIE.

Idaho physicians using Greenway's integrated EHR, practice management and interoperability solution PrimeSUITE® 2011, can immediately connect to the state HIE and have access to community wide clinical data from all participating data sources and health care providers instantly and securely. Through a single interface, Greenway practices and clinics can seamlessly push or pull information from any participant that feeds data into the Idaho Health Data Exchange. The interface will save practices, providers and clinics time on interface building, and cost for connectivity thereby allowing the practice to focus and provide for the needs of the patients.

Coupled with this agreement is an arrangement with a number of physician practices through HighPoint Medical, a provider of medical practice management services, to connect to IHDE. "HighPoint Medical is honored to participate with the Idaho Health Data Exchange and Greenway in offering our medical providers a comprehensive electronic solution to accessing their patient's health history," said Skip Meyer, President, HighPoint Medical. "We feel strongly that this will not only simplify the providers' efforts but will also improve the patient experience through timeliness and quality of care."

"As reliable and scalable data exchange becomes paramount for care coordination, Greenway is gratified to help execute this advancement in care delivery," said Chief Operating Officer of Greenway Medical Technologies Greg Schulenburg. "These types of partnerships with the Idaho HIE and Highpoint Medical, further fueled by exchange engines like that of Axolotl HIE, provide the quality abilities of standard data exchange to reach across states, regions and the eventuality of a national health information network (NwHIN)."

The Axolotl Interoperability Hub from OptumInsight clinically networks disparate, certified EHRs and legacy systems, enabling complete interoperability and fully collaborative patient care via HL7, CCR, CCD and other structures. With a single interface, physician practices are immediately able to exchange data with all participants on a HIE, while also indicating which of their specific data is to be made available for query - providing authorized HIE participants with a more complete picture of a patient's health. EHRs may also connect to the HIE using IHE profile technology, facilitating query and retrieval for the EHR.

"Greenway is the first of several EHR vendor connections that we plan to complete over the next several years," said IHDE Executive Director Scott Carrell. "With Greenway's ability to develop a hub-to-hub connection and HighPoint Medical's support of bringing practices to IHDE, patients across Idaho will benefit from more collaborative and cost effective care."

New health care providers and physicians that participate and connect to IHDE will have access to clinical data from participating data sources including; Kootenai Medical Center, St. Joseph's Regional Medical Center, St. Mary's Hospital, Clearwater Valley Hospital, Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center, St. Luke's Health System, Pathologists Regional Laboratory, Treasure Valley Laboratory, Boise Pathology, PAML, Idaho's Division of Medicaid, Blue Cross of Idaho, Regence Blue Shield of Idaho and others.

Powered by the Axolotl HIE platform from OptumInsight, IHDE enables authorized and participating health care providers to securely exchange critical patient information electronically from hospitals, labs, radiology centers and other business partners, and sending referrals or consults to other health care providers in real-time. IHDE has successfully connected several hospitals, more than 400 participating users and independent reference labs to the statewide exchange, and is actively working to connect additional physician practices, hospitals, lab and radiology centers, and all other health care stakeholders across Idaho.

About HighPoint Medical, Inc.
HighPoint Medical provides a step by step approach in making the crucial change from paper to EMR/EHR. Embracing this technology can bring physician practices to optimum performance levels and significant revenue improvements. The company's specialties include: Medical Practice Management, Electronic Health Records and IT Support & Hosting. For more information visit www.highpointmed.com.

About Greenway Medical Technologies, Inc.
Greenway Medical Technologies provides innovative EHR, ambulatory healthcare and clinical research business solutions and services to more than 33,000 healthcare providers nationwide, in 30 specialties and subspecialties, by enhancing the delivery of patient care through advanced health IT software and on-demand services that allow physician practices to function at their highest level of efficiency in group practice, IDN, REC, HIE, IPA, Accountable Care Organization (ACO) and Patient Centered Medical Home (PCMH) settings. Established in 1998, Carrollton, Ga.-based Greenway is a privately held company with more than 500 employees. For more information, go to www.greenwaymedical.com.

About The Idaho Health Data Exchange
The Idaho Health Data Exchange, Inc., a 501(c)(6) non-profit corporation, was established to govern the development and implementation of the health data exchange in Idaho. IHDE is governed by a Board of Directors which provides direction and oversight to the organization. The Board includes representation from both the public and private sectors, including the health care delivery and financing systems, health care providers and consumers.

The IHDE was created as a result of the efforts of the Health Quality Planning Commission. The Health Quality Planning Commission was created by the 2006 Legislature. The Commission was charged with promoting improved quality of care and health outcomes through investment in health information technology.

Initial funding for the effort was appropriated by Idaho's Legislature and ongoing funding comes from participants in the Exchange and ARRA grant dollars. For more information visit http://www.idahohde.org and follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

Faster Diagnosis and Treatment, Reduced Radiation Exposure and Health Care Cost Savings Enabled by Image Exchange Implemented for RHIO Serving Western New York by eHealth Global Technologies and OptumInsight

ewatts@axolotl.com (Elvia Watts) — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 07:00:00 +0000

ROCHESTER, N.Y. Jan. 10, 2012 - eHealth Global Technologies, Inc. (eHGT) and OptumInsight will deploy an innovative medical image exchange service for HEALTHeLINK, a Regional Health Information Organization serving eight counties of western New York, including Buffalo and Niagara Falls. This partnership will enable faster diagnosis and treatment, improved outcomes, reduced radiation exposure and health care cost reductions.

Powered by OptumInsight's, Axolotl® Image Exchange, the new service enables rapid, secure access to diagnostic quality radiology and cardiology images that support clinical decisions made by providers that participate in HEALTHeLINK. The ability to access images with a single click, within the context of each patient's community-wide medical record and without disrupting the caregiver's workflow will support efforts to enhance patient care.

"We are excited to offer our healthcare providers and their patients so many new opportunities to enhance care, improve efficiency and lower cost. We expect the implementation of this service to lead to a reduction of unnecessary imaging exams, thus minimizing patient radiation exposure and reducing the cost of care. Immediate access to images, when and where they are needed, will also allow our physicians to provide faster diagnosis and treatment, with tighter care coordination and improved outcomes. Finally, the burden of reproducing, transporting, and attempting to view physical storage media such as CDs will be lifted from patients and caregivers alike, allowing them to focus on much more important priorities such as recovery and wellness," stated Dan Porreca, HEALTHeLINK's Executive Director.

"Many benefits that have never been realized before will now be enjoyed, all ensuring a higher standard of efficiency and quality of care. The Axolotl Image Exchange offers notable advantages over other more conventional methods of sharing images. Thanks to our hybrid-federated architecture, most images are available in full diagnostic quality in seconds; rather than minutes, hours or even days. Since this service "image enables" HIEs, there is no need to establish a separate, costly mechanism to ensure patient privacy and security, as the same rules that govern the exchange at large also apply to imaging. Images are made available within the context of the entire patient record, not as a part of a separate system. And finally, physicians can view their patient's images in a single web-enabled viewing environment regardless of how many different PACS technologies and imaging provider locations they may have originated at," stated Gary Larson, COO and General Manager, HIE Services, from eHGT.

For more information about Axolotl Image Exchange, click here.

About HEALTHeLINK
The not-for-profit organization was established through funding from BlueCross BlueShield of Western New York, The Catholic Health System, Erie County Medical Center Corporation, Independent Health Association, Kaleida Health, Roswell Park Cancer Institute, Univera Healthcare and the Health Care Efficiency and Affordability Law for New Yorkers Capital Grant Program (HEAL NY) from New York State. HEALTHeLINK also received one of the country's largest awards as part of the United States Department of Health and Human Services' Beacon Community Cooperative Agreement Program.

HEALTHeLINK stakeholders include a broad representation of healthcare professionals and organizations throughout the eight-county Western New York region such as the State University of New York at Buffalo, P2 Collaborative, Chautauqua County Health Network, the WNY Rural Area Health Education Center and local county public health departments. For more information on HEALTHeLINK, visit www.wnyhealthelink.com .

About eHealth Global Technologies, Inc. (eHGT)
eHGT is the leading medical record retrieval and diagnostic image exchange service provider, serving 50% of the nation's top 100 hospitals and leading health information exchanges (HIEs), including 13 of the top 17 hospitals selected to the prominent Honor Roll of the Best Hospitals from the 2011-2012 U.S. News & World Report. The company's services include eHealth Connect® Diagnostic Image Exchange and eHealth AccessTM Record Retrieval Service. Our services utilize innovative health information technology to access medical records and diagnostic images in any format, and then securely deliver them to providers and clinicians in a digital format to improve continuity of care. Web: www.eHGT.com

East Tennessee Health Information Network Selects OptumInsight Health Information Exchange Technology to Support Better Patient Care Coordination

ewatts@axolotl.com (Elvia Watts) — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 07:00:00 +0000

Secure clinical network facilitates easy access to patient information to support medical decision-making

Axolotl HIE solution enhances connectivity, collaboration among care providers across Tennessee

KNOXVILLE, Tenn., Dec. 20, 2011 - The East Tennessee Health Information Network (etHIN) has selected OptumInsight's health information exchange (HIE) technology to help physicians, hospitals and other health care providers in the region improve patient care coordination and quality.

"Our vision is to securely connect hospitals, physicians and other health care providers with each other and to critical health information at the point of care to enable significant improvements in patient safety, health outcomes and opportunities for practice efficiencies. We feel confident that OptumInsight is the best partner to help us accomplish this," said Leigh Sterling, etHIN executive director.

etHIN is a collaborative group composed of eastern Tennessee's major health systems. The network will use the Axolotl HIE platform from OptumInsight to create a secure clinical network that connects participating physicians, hospitals, laboratory services providers and pharmacies in the region. This will enable medical professionals to access and share critical health information, including electronic medical records, to support faster, more effective clinical decision-making and coordination with other care providers.

Further, through the Axolotl HIE platform, participating physicians and hospitals will easily be able to connect to the state Health Information Partnership for Tennessee Network to coordinate patient care and access clinical data from Immunization Services, Public Health Reporting, Lab Reporting Services and other qualified organizations across the state.

"Since before etHIN was formalized in 2003, providers in our region have been working together to enable the exchange of health information to improve health care outcomes and reduce costs for our community. Our selection of OptumInsight's Axolotl HIE solution came after an in-depth evaluation and emerged as the solution that met our criteria and fit into our vision of a robust Health Information Exchange," stated Mike Ward, president of the East Tennessee Health Information Network.

"HIE technology from OptumInsight provides a secure bridge between medical professionals, improving access to information and facilitating communication between caregivers. This initiative will help reduce duplicate testing, provide safer transitions of care and reduce administrative costs," said Glenn Keet, president of Axolotl at OptumInsight.

The Axolotl HIE platform
An HIE network connects all of the participating care providers and their patient record systems within its defined medical community - a hospital, independent delivery network (IDN), region or state. Once connected, patient-authorized participants can instantly receive and exchange their patient's clinical results as well as access a complete and up-to-date medical record at the point of care. This supports clinical decisions and efforts to improve quality of care and patient safety.

The Axolotl HIE platform from OptumInsight connects hundreds of thousands of health professionals across nine statewide exchanges and 25 regional health information organizations, as well as beacon communities, accountable care organizations and independent delivery networks. For more information visit www.axolotl.com.

About The East Tennessee Health Information Network
The East Tennessee Health Information Network (etHIN) is regional health initiative based in Knoxville, Tenn., comprised of major hospitals and health systems in the region, including Covenant Health, University of Tennessee Health Systems, Tennova Healthcare, Blount Memorial Hospital, East Tennessee Children's Hospital and Summit Medical Group. Since its inception in late 2003, etHIN has a mission to improve patient care, safety, and quality as well as lowering the cost of healthcare delivery. As a community driven project, the network will ultimately serve the needs of health consumers in a 17 county region in East Tennessee.

Nebraska Doctors Participating in NeHII Are Now Sharing Patient Immunization Information with Nebraska State Immunization Information System

ewatts@axolotl.com (Elvia Watts) — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 11:00:00 +0000

Omaha, NE, December 5, 2011 - The Nebraska Health Information Initiative (NeHII), Nebraska's statewide Health Information Exchange (HIE) announced today that physicians participating in the exchange will have access to electronically share patient immunization information to NESIIS, the Nebraska State Immunization Information System.

The Nebraska State Immunization Information System is a secure, statewide, web-based system that connects and shares immunization information among public clinics, private provider offices, local health departments, schools, hospitals and other health care facilities that administer immunizations and provide medical care to Nebraska residents.

Immunization information is currently shared among physicians using NeHII. Integrating NESIIS into the exchange, will further improve the ability of public health practitioners, planners and clinicians in preventing the spread of vaccine-preventable diseases. The increased exchange of immunization information is expected to result in more accurate and up-to-date immunization records, and state officials expect the continued growth of information exchange to improve issues related to missed immunizations and over-immunization.

Dr. Joann Schaefer
CMO, State of Nebraska, Department of Public Health

Dr. Joann Schaefer, Chief Medical Officer for the State of Nebraska, Department of Public Health said, "This is not only a step in proving the value of electronic health information sharing but it is going to improve our vaccination rates and save more lives over time."

The exchange of information between NeHII and NESIIS will further current national goals for increased consumer engagement through health information technology. According to the National Coordinator for Health IT Farzad Mostashari, improving patient access to health information will be a critical part of consumer engagement in Health IT. NESIIS provides patients with secure online access to their immunization records, and the addition of patient data from NeHII is expected to increase the quality and quantity of their information.

Deb Bass
Executive Director
NeHI

NeHII Executive Director Deb Bass said, "We have worked diligently to offer this functionality through NeHII. We are excited to announce yet another opportunity to demonstrate the value of health information exchange."

A later phase will involve securely sending statewide immunization data from NESIIS to NeHII. At that time, the full range of statewide immunization data will be accessible to participating physicians through NeHII's Virtual Health Record.

Powered by the Axolotl HIE platform from OptumInsight, NeHII electronically delivers clinical information to the point of care, integrating a wide variety of patient clinical data including laboratory results, ER reports, discharge summaries, radiology reports, progress notes, transcription, medications and other medical information. NeHII is the first to go live with the Axolotl Immunization Gateway.

About NeHII:
As an early adopter and national leader for Health Information Exchange, NeHII, a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization has functioned as a public-private collaborative that currently reaches nearly 85 percent of lives in Nebraska and a substantial number of individuals in Nebraska's six border states. NeHII's vision is to be a leader in the secure exchange of health information, enabling a healthier Nebraska.

San Diego Area Health Care Providers to Launch Technology to Improve Patient Care

ewatts@axolotl.com (Elvia Watts) — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 22:21:42 +0000

Federal Beacon Program Set to Go Live at Select Health Care Locations

San Diego, CA, November 14, 2011 - As part of a federal initiative designed to improve medical care through health information technology (health IT), several San Diego health care providers announced today that they are ready to launch a health information exchange (HIE) that will link area hospitals, clinics, ambulances, and other health care facilities electronically to improve communication and allow for the exchange of vital patient information.

The San Diego Beacon Community (SDBC) was one of 17 communities nationwide chosen by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) to demonstrate how information technology could measurably improve the health of a region. SDBC was awarded a three-year, $15.3 million grant to target four specific areas: improve care for emergency cardiac patients, reduce hospital readmission, reduce unnecessary CT scans and improve rates and reporting of childhood immunizations.

A major component of the project will be building a community health information exchange that will link health care providers electronically. Once connected, authorized physicians will be able to request and access a complete and up-to-date medical record from other participating physicians who have also seen the patient for clinical care. Transmitted medical information will include recent diagnoses, medications, allergies, lab test results, radiology results and discharge summaries. In essence, the patient's medical record will follow them regardless of where they received care in San Diego. With access to better patient information, physicians will be able to provide higher quality care, reduce unnecessary repeat tests and procedures, and lower the risk of potential medical errors.

SDBC selected OptumInsight (formerly Axolotl) to build San Diego's health information exchange. "Patient privacy and data security are our top priorities in this project," said Ted Chan, MD, San Diego Beacon Program Lead. "It was critical for the SDBC to select a vendor with proven and compliant technology that meets state and national standards." San Diego is OptumInsight's fifth Beacon community including Utah, Colorado, Western New York and Cincinnati.

Patients will be fully in control of their medical information by providing one of three consent options: emergency (only allow access in the event of an emergency), full (access information for all health care encounters), or none (do not allow access). Patients will be able to provide consent at their doctor's office and can change their consent status at any time. Physicians at participating Beacon sites are only allowed to access information when providing medical care to the patient.

"Most people maintain and keep better records for their cars than they do their own healthcare," said Supervisor Ron Roberts. "With the Health Information Exchange, an emergency room doctor could quickly and independently get lifesaving information about a patient, even one who has arrived unconscious."

John Dalton, a local cardiac patient attributes his survival and quick recovery from a heart attack to the ability of health care providers to exchange and share his medical data. Paramedics were able to send Dalton's ECG electronically from the ambulance to the hospital where the Emergency Department physician and cardiologist were able to access the information before he arrived.

"Years ago they would have had to wait until I arrived in the ER before the paramedics could tell the doctor what they thought was going on," said Dalton. "My ECG arrived to the ER before I did, and my doctor knew immediately that I was having a heart attack. That information allowed him to make an informed decision about my treatment before he even saw me. Modern medicine is great as far as I'm concerned."

The health information exchange will launch in early December at selected sites of participating organizations including Children's Primary Care Medical Group, Rady Children's Hospital, UC San Diego Health System, Sharp Community Medical Group, and VA San Diego Healthcare System. The health information exchange will be implemented within other sites throughout the San Diego health care community over the next 14 months.

Physicians, patients and other San Diegans interested in learning more about the San Diego Beacon Community project and how to participate in the health information exchange are encouraged to visit www.SanDiegoBeacon.org for more information.

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Multiple States and Vendors Agree On Standard Health Data Connectivity Specifications

laith@laithsinawi.com (Laith Sinawi: Admin) — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 02:19:53 +0000

Workgroup defines "plug and play" connections between electronic health records and health information exchanges

New York, NY, November 8, 2011 - A group of states and vendors focused on eliminating the barriers to sharing electronic health records (EHRs) 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, 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.

About The New York eHealth Collaborative

The New York eHealth Collaborative (NYeC) is a not-for-profit organization, working to improve healthcare for all New Yorkers through health information technology (health IT). Founded in 2006 by healthcare leaders, NYeC receives funding from state and federal grants to advance health IT throughout the State of New York. NYeC works to develop policies and standards, to assist healthcare providers in making the shift to electronic health records, and to coordinate the creation of a network to connect healthcare providers statewide. The goal of NYeC is that no patient, wherever they may need treatment within the State of New York, is ever without fast, secure, accurate, and accessible information.

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University of Michigan Health System Partners with Great Lakes Health Information Exchange

ewatts@axolotl.com (Elvia Watts) — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 16:19:10 +0000

OKEMOS, MI, October 24, 2011 - The Great Lakes Health Information Exchange (GLHIE) announced today an agreement that was adopted on October 17th to connect the University of Michigan Health System (UMHS) to the GLHIE, extending the availability of electronic patient health information across much of lower Michigan and northern Ohio.

"This new partnership affirms our commitment to using the latest information technology solutions to benefit our patients," says Jocelyn DeWitt, PhD, chief information officer, U-M Hospital and Health Centers."

"We will significantly expand our ability to access clinical data for UMHS and non-UMHS patients in Michigan through GLHIE. Secure access to relevant medical information about individual patients from multiple sources will help our clinicians improve treatment, prevent errors and avoid duplicate testing."

"We welcome this partnership with U of M Health Systems as an opportunity to improve the quality of health care for UMHS patients across the region," said Carol Parker, executive director of the Great Lakes Health Information Exchange. "When an institution of this caliber selects you as a partner, it is confirmation of your technology and organizational model."

The GLHIE enables the secure exchange of patient health information from across multiple providers using the Axolotl HIE platform from OptumInsight, which has also recently been selected by the Michigan Health Information Exchange to connect sub-state HIEs statewide.

GLHIE is a substate HIE, and along with other sub-state HIEs in the Michigan will eventually feed into the Michigan Health Information Network that will enable the exchange of patient date throughout the state. The broader vision for the future is that the National Health Information Network would connect all the state networks.

About Great Lakes Health Information Exchange

The Great Lakes Health Information Exchange, formerly known as the Capital Area Regional Health Information Organization (RHIO), is a collaborative health information exchange (HIE) governed by its partners, including Michigan State University, Sparrow Health System, Hayes Green Beach Hospital, Clinton/Eaton/Ingham Community Mental Health, Ingham County Health Department, the State of Michigan, Capital Area Health Alliance, and local physicians. For more information, visit www.glhie.org.

Fourteen Critical Access Hospitals Join the Nebraska Statewide Health Information Exchange

ewatts@axolotl.com (Elvia Watts) — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 17:04:23 +0000

Omaha, NE, October 12, 2011 - The Nebraska Health Information Initiative (NeHII), Nebraska's statewide Health Information Exchange (HIE) announced today that within the past month, fourteen Critical Access Hospitals (CAHs) have joined NeHII in an effort to access and share health information across the state. Powered by the Axolotl HIE platform from OptumInsight, NeHII electronically delivers clinical information at the point of care, integrating a wide variety of patient clinical data including laboratory results, ER reports, discharge summaries, radiology reports, progress notes, transcription, medications and other medical information.

Critical Access Hospitals that have joined NeHII include:

Antelope Memorial Hospital, Neligh, NE
Avera Creighton Hospital, Creighton, NE
Avera St. Anthony's Hospital, O'Neill, NE
Chase County Community Hospital, Imperial, NE
Cherry County Hospital, Valentine, NE
Community Hospital, McCook, NE
Community Medical Center, Falls City, NE
Community Memorial Hospital, Syracuse, NE
Lexington Regional Health Center, Lexington, NE
Memorial Health Center, Sidney, NE
Perkins County Health Services, Grant, NE
Plainview Area Health System, Plainview, NE
Providence Medical Center, Wayne, NE
Tri Valley Health Center, Cambridge, NE

"Memorial Health Center is committed to providing the highest quality care possible, from the latest in technology and equipment to electronic information accessibility," stated Kelly Utley, Chief Financial Officer at Memorial Health Center. Utley also noted, "Being able to exchange health information electronically between providers is the latest step toward achieving that high quality. We are very excited to be a part of this information exchange because it keeps our hospital on the leading edge, not only in the state of Nebraska but in the country."

Small hospitals may be certified as Critical Access Hospitals to help implement initiatives to strengthen the rural healthcare infrastructure. In 1997 the Medicare Rural Hospital Flexibility Program was established to promote regionalization of rural health services in the state and to improve the quality of healthcare and access to hospital and other health services for rural residents of the state.

Among other requirements, CAHs must be located in rural areas separated from other hospitals by at least 35 miles or less in mountainous terrain or areas with only secondary roads available, and are required to provide emergency services 24 hours per day. Nebraska ranks among the highest in the number of CAHs in the nation with 65.

Physicians working with the newly-participating CAHs will have secure access to electronically exchange and share clinical patient information and medication history with other hospitals and healthcare providers across the state that care for their patients.

NeHII Executive Director Deb Bass said, "This is a thrilling announcement for Nebraskans. Because of the extensive rural populations in the state, the CAHs play a critical role in the delivery of quality healthcare. With the CAHs participation in NeHII, they will be able to retrieve information on their patients returning from larger referral health systems across the states. With the implementation of health information technology and telehealth, there will be opportunities for the patient to remain at the CAH and recover in familiar healthcare settings surrounded by their families."

Leaders of the initiative expect further CAHs to elect to participate throughout 2011.

About NeHII:
As an early adopter and national leader for Health Information Exchange, NeHII, a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization has functioned as a public-private collaborative that currently reaches nearly 85 percent of lives in Nebraska and a substantial number of individuals in Nebraska's six border states. NeHII's vision is to be a leader in the secure exchange of health information, enabling a healthier Nebraska. For more information, visit www.nehii.org.