Looks to Promote Adoption of Nationwide Health Information Exchange
Healtheway, the non-profit, public-private partnership that operationally supports the eHealth Exchange (formerly known as the Nationwide Health Information Network Exchange) yesterday announced its nine founding organizations. The organizations are influential representatives from across the healthcare spectrum. They will supplement the involvement of the federal government that has coalesced around the eHealth Exchange.
Healtheway’s nine founding members are:
- American Medical Association (AMA)
- Epic
- ICA
- Kaiser Permanente
- MedVirginia
- Mirth Corporation
- New York eHealth Collaborative (NYeC)
- Orion Health
- WEDI
The nine founding organizations reflect a diverse and distinguished group of health IT thought leaders and innovators who will guide Healtheway as it lays the foundation for a secure nationwide health information exchange.
“Those who have worked in health IT over the last decade know that progress comes through consensus,” said Mariann Yeager, Executive Director, Healtheway, Inc. “Our founding members have committed to hands-on involvement in helping to shape Healtheway’s future and collaborating to identify and promote effective and secure, nationwide approaches to health information exchange. In addition to technology vendors working at the forefront of the market, the group also includes technology implementers and leading associations who represent a broad range of stakeholders, including the provider community. Though our membership will continue to grow in the coming years, our founding members bring the right blend of skills and perspectives to keep us at the forefront of health IT efforts in the United States.”
The founding members’ activities will supplement the work of the Healtheway board of directors. Founding members will be charged with exploring new health IT opportunities and providing recommendations to the board regarding issues that would be of value to the full Healtheway community.
“Today’s announcement reinforces our commitment to establishing a secure, interoperable nationwide health information exchange network that is capable of overcoming many of the challenging issues facing health information exchange today,” said Michael Matthews, Healtheway Board Chair and founding member, and CEO of MedVirginia. “The founding members each come at health information exchange from a different perspective, and it’s that unique perspective we will rely on. We must continue building an exchange that can meet the needs of organizations large and small, in a wide variety of clinical and technical environments.”
As part of its charter in operationally supporting the eHealth Exchange, Healtheway is working to expand membership and participation in the eHealth Exchange. Originally formed as the Nationwide Health Information Network Exchange program in 2007 by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC), the eHealth Exchange has since transitioned into a true public/private partnership. Involving health IT industry luminaries allows the eHealth Exchange to expand and increase nationwide participation. Today the community includes thousands of providers and millions of patients