HIE Rundown – 7-06-21

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.

Listen

From The Incrementalist, host Dr. Nick van Terheyden aka Dr. Nick welcomes Lisa Bari, CEO of SHIEC, to discuss how COVID19 has amplified the need for HIE’s. How states with good HIE’s were able to stand up resources for the pandemic faster. And how HIEs are helping improve distribution of health resources to match needs and fight inequity.

News and Noted

CyncHealth Selects Lyniate to Support Rapid Growth and Community Collaboration
Lyniate (@lyniate), a connector of healthcare worldwide, announced CyncHealth (@CyncHealth), the health data utility for the Midwest, has chosen Lyniate Rhapsody to support its explosive growth. CyncHealth, which first developed its successful model for health information exchange for the state of Nebraska, has expanded its network to Iowa, South Dakota, North Dakota, Minnesota, Missouri and Kansas.

MiHIN, Velatura Public Benefit Corporation Announce Donation to Interoperability Institute Workforce Program
Michigan Health Information Network Shared Services (MiHIN) (@MiHIN) and Velatura Public Benefit Corporation (Velatura) announced that a portion of proceeds from every referral it makes to Trusted Dynamic Registration & Authentication Accreditation Program (TDRAAP), launched by EHNAC, will be used to support a student pursuing a career in health information technology at Interoperability Institute’s (IOI) Workforce program.

Sentara Healthcare, Optima Health and Unite Us Join Forces to Connect Patients and Members With Local Community Programs and Resources
Sentara Healthcare (@sentarahealth) and Optima Health are pleased to partner with Unite Us (@UniteUsHQ), a technology company building coordinated care networks nationwide. This collaboration strengthens our shared commitment to create healthier communities and improve the quality of life for Virginians most in need. The Unite Us Platform creates a single space where Sentara and Optima Health can connect our patients and members to local health, human, and community-based organizations to address their social determinants of health and broader health needs to better improve health outcomes.

Health Current Selects Care Directives to Power the New Arizona Healthcare Directives Registry
Health Current (@AZHealthCurrent), Arizona’s health information exchange (HIE), announced the selection of Care Directives (@care_directives) as its vendor of choice to develop the new Arizona Healthcare Directives Registry (AzHDR). The AzHDR is designed to help honor patients’ end-of-life healthcare wishes by providing seamless access to advance directives across the continuum of care.

VirtualHealth Receives Top Grades in “Payer Care Management 2021” KLAS Report
VirtualHealth (@VirtualHealth_), the industry-leading SaaS solution for comprehensive medical management, announced that KLAS Research awarded its HELIOS® platform the highest overall grade among competitor solutions, with a score of 87.4* in the KLAS “Payer Care Management 2021” report. The analysis identifies HELIOS’ ease of use, interoperability, and customer satisfaction as key differentiators.

Products and Technology

Envoc Releases the First State-Approved Digital SMART Health Card via LA Wallet
Envoc (@envoc), the technology company that first allowed you to carry a legal, digital driver’s license with LA Wallet, has announced that Louisiana residents can now use the app to optionally add a digital SMART Health Card. This will give users immediate, trustworthy access to their COVID-19 vaccine status sourced from the Louisiana Department of Health.

Good Health Pass Interoperability Blueprint Draft
The Good Health Pass (@GoodHealthPass) Interoperability Blueprint proposes a comprehensive standard for digital health passes, which will enable compliant passes to be universally recognized and accepted by airlines, airports, and border control agencies around the world, thus creating a trusted, convenient, and seamless travel experience.

Events

HL7

SHIEC

PATIENT ID NOW

Patient ID Now is a coalition of healthcare organizations representing a wide range of healthcare stakeholders committed to advancing through legislation and regulations a nationwide strategy to address patient identification. Read more about the coalition.

  • Patient Matching: An Essential Tool in the Era of COVID-19
    Free Recording

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of ensuring patients are accurately matched to their medical records, yet the problem of patient misidentification persists, endangering patient safety, and the public health response. Listen to the newly formed Patient ID Now Coalition during a virtual hill briefing with health leaders on July 7. They dive into the implications of patient matching and identification during the pandemic.

Patient ID Now Coalition Pleased Congress is Addressing Patient Misidentification
Patient ID Now, a coalition of leading healthcare organizations, including the American College of Surgeons, the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA), the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME), Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS), Intermountain Healthcare and Premier Healthcare Alliance, is pleased that the U.S. House of Representatives voted to remove the longstanding ban in its Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies appropriations bill that stifles innovation around patient identification.

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 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 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.

DirectTrust

A pioneer in offering technical trust and confidence in the secure exchange of health information, DirectTrust (@DirectTrustorg) is committed to collaboration for advancing secure communication. As a non-profit trade alliance, DirectTrust operates not only as a membership organization, but also as an ANSI-accredited standards body, a trust framework supported by policy, and an accreditor for reliable and trusted exchange across the DirectTrust network. Read their News and Events.

HL7

Founded in 1987, Health Level Seven International (HL7) (@HL7) is a not-for-profit, ANSI-accredited standards developing organization dedicated to providing a comprehensive framework and related standards for the exchange, integration, sharing, and retrieval of electronic health information that supports clinical practice and the management, delivery and evaluation of health services. HL7 is supported by more than 1,600 members from over 50 countries, including 500+ corporate members representing healthcare providers, government stakeholders, payers, pharmaceutical companies, vendors/suppliers, and consulting firms. Read their newsfeed.

Interoperability Institute

The Interoperability Institute (IOI) (@TheInteropInst) is designed to provide the products, services, leadership, and workforce to bring advanced interoperability solutions to the Health IT market. For stakeholders invested in health and social outcomes, this means less fragmented, more resource efficient ecosystems that seamlessly share electronic information for public benefit. For consumers, this means greater continuity of care across providers, health systems, and geographies among a myriad of other benefits that stretch beyond healthcare. Read their newsfeed.

Resources

Case Study: NEHII Rises to the Challenge of COVID-19 with Cloud-Based Analytics and Robust Patient Matching Tools
The Nebraska Health Information Initiative (NEHII) is a leading non-profit health information exchange (HIE) serving more than 4 million residents across 300 participating health care providers, payers and the State of Nebraska. NEHII partnered with NextGate to accurately match and connect critical public health information across the state of Nebraska to support trusted data exchange and case reporting for COVID-19 using an Enterprise Master Patient Index on Amazon Web Services (AWS).

Download this eBook by NextGate (@NextGate) to read the case study.

Consensus: The Chase for Interoperability
In its continued campaign to bring about data interoperability across the healthcare industry by 2024, the HHS’s Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) and Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) jointly released a set of new rules in 2019 to further promote the seamless exchange of protected health information (PHI). Despite increasing attempts to facilitate interoperability through regulations, the challenges lie elsewhere in creating seamless data exchange among a patient’s physician, hospital, labs, pharmacy, and others along the continuum of care.

Download this paper by eFax Corporate (@eFaxCorporate) to learn more about the fastest, most cost-effective way for your organization to access and share patient data through one interoperable platform.

eHealth Initiative Resource Center
Interoperability Files – Check out the new white paper resource in the eHealth Initiative’s (@eHealthDC) Resource Center: Case Study: Remote Patient Monitoring

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.