HIE Rundown – 4-05-19

Health Information Exchange (HIE) is happening every minute of every day. Your personal health information is moving and being viewed to improve the quality of your healthcare and lower the costs. The job will not be complete until all health records are digital and interoperable. Here’s what’s happening to make that reality.

Events

2019 Health Datapalooza
On March 27-28, 2019, attendees gathered in the nation’s capital for the 10th Anniversary Health Datapalooza for meaningful collaboration and face-to-face conversations about the big ideas, big opportunities, and policy hurdles for improving health and health care. Read more about the event at the AcademyHealth website. Take in the highlights and conversation on the events hashtag #HDatapolooza.

News and Noted

U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Joins DirectTrust’s Accredited Trust Anchor Bundle
DirectTrust announced that the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Direct Messaging has joined the association’s Accredited Trust Anchor Bundle, allowing VA personnel access to the full national network of 1.8 million Direct endpoints. DirectTrust is a health care industry alliance created by and for participants in the Direct exchange network used for secure, interoperable messaging of protected health information (PHI) between provider organizations, and between provider and patients, for the purpose of improved coordination of care.

The Sequoia Project
The Sequoia Project (@SequoiaProject) was chartered to advance the implementation of secure, interoperable nationwide health information exchange. The ONC transitioned management of its eHealth Exchange to The Sequoia Project for maintenance. Since 2012, the Exchange has grown to become the largest health information exchange network in the country.

The Strategic Health Information Exchange Collaborative
SHIEC (@SHIEClive) is the National Trade Association for Health Information Exchange Organizations. It is routine for important data about patients’ ongoing care to reside in multiple unconnected organizations. SHIEC member HIEs use information technology and trusted relationships in their service areas to enable secure, authorized exchange of patient information among disparate providers. By providing enhanced access to all available and relevant patient data SHIEC HIE members aim to improve the quality, coordination, and cost-effectiveness of health care provided in their communities. Read their news feed.

The CommonWell
CommonWell Health Alliance (@CommonWell) is devoted to the simple vision that health data should be available to individuals and providers regardless of where care occurs. Additionally, provider access to this data must be built-in health IT at a reasonable cost for use by a broad range of health care providers and the people they serve.

Resources

HealthDataAnswers.net

Interoperability and the Quest to Solve Healthcare’s Seemingly Unsolvable Problem

Despite years of effort, healthcare has yet to achieve true interoperability. Physicians, health systems, vendors and the government all claim to back initiatives that support the sharing of healthcare data between providers. Yet very few hospitals today can pull up the complete medical history of a single patient coming through their ER doors – and thus the quest for healthcare interoperability remains very much alive.

Download this new e-book from Medicomp that is sharing the untold story of interoperability. It is exploring the reality of the current landscape, why progress has been so slow and how we can collaborate to deliver safer, more cost-effective patient care.

eHealth Initiative Resource Center
Interoperability Files – Check out the new white paper resource in the eHealth Initiative’s (@eHealthDC) Resource Center: Implementation of Behavioural and Medical Health Management Applications: Reducing High Intensity Medicaid Services Utilization for Individuals with Serious Mental Illness.

ONC Interoperability Pledge
Companies that provide 90 percent of electronic health records used by hospitals nationwide as well as the top five largest health care systems in the country have agreed to implement three core commitments: Consumer Access, No Blocking/Ensuring Transparency, and Standards. The ONC (@ONC_HealthIT) wants vendors to sign a pledge. Is your vendor pledging? Find out who is on the list.