HIE Rundown 8-04-17

network-200Health 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.

Reliance eHealth Collaborative Joins the Strategic Health Information Exchange Collaborative (SHIEC)
The Strategic Health Information Exchange Collaborative (SHIEC), a national trade association representing health information exchanges (HIEs), announced Reliance HIE has become the 50th HIE member to join. Already the largest collaborative of HIEs in the country, SHIEC continues to grow its member base to help promote secure health data sharing across the country and facilitate quality patient outcomes and care delivery.

ONC seeks comments on Trusted Exchange and Common Agreement
Over the coming months, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) (@ONC_HealthIT) will host a series of meetings, webinars, and public comment periods to inform our work in support of the 21st Century Cures Act trusted exchange framework and common agreement provisions outlined in Section 4003 of the law. ONC looks forward to working with stakeholders on implementation of this Cures provision—an integral component of nationwide network-to-network exchange of health data and a critical part of ONC’s charge to support nationwide interoperability.

3 Strategies for Achieving Interoperability
The future of healthcare in the US is based on an assumption that every health IT system can interoperate with every other health IT system—which would enable better care coordination and reduce costs. But how far along are we at actually achieving full interoperability and what can we do to get there? Check out this download from eHealth Initiative (@eHealthDC) & visit the eHealth Resource Center to explore new frequently added content.

Vail Valley Medical Center Selects Spok Care Connect® to Streamline Care Team Workflows and Elevate Patient Care
Spok, Inc. (@spoktweets), a wholly owned subsidiary of Spok Holdings, Inc. and the leader in healthcare communications, announced that Vail Valley Medical Center (VVMC) has selected Spok Care Connect® to improve workflows for its care teams and strengthen patient care through enhanced clinical communications. VVMC is a 58-bed community hospital accredited by The Joint Commission and designated by the state of Colorado as a Level III Trauma Center.

DirectTrust Reports Steady Growth in Number of Direct Exchange Users, Addresses and Transactions during Second Quarter
DirectTrust (@DirectTrustorg) announced continued steady growth in the number of Direct exchange users, addresses and transactions. The organization also announced the addition of five new members since the beginning of the second quarter. DirectTrust is a health care industry alliance created by and for participants in the Direct exchange network used for secure, interoperable exchange of personal health information (PHI) between provider organizations, and between provider and patients, for the purpose of improved coordination of care.

MEDITECH Set to Deploy CommonWell Health Alliance Services to Customers
MEDITECH (@MEDITECH) announced it is set to offer CommonWell (@CommonWell) interoperability services in early 2018. The deployment will enable healthcare organizations to exchange patient information seamlessly for improved patient care and quality outcomes.

Surescripts National Record Locator Service Gives More Than 40 Health Systems the Ability to Locate and Share Records for Nearly the Entire U.S. Population
Surescripts (@Surescripts) continues to rapidly expand nationwide healthcare interoperability by adding 14 new health systems to its National Record Locator Service (NRLS), including Allegheny Health Network (PA), The Institute for Family Health (NY), JPS Health Network (TX), Metro Health-University of Michigan Health, St. Luke’s Health System (ID) and WakeMed Health & Hospitals (NC). These are among the 28 health systems that now have easy access to nationwide clinical records for 230 million patients representing more than four billion potential patient visits—20 times more than any other record locator service. An additional 13 health systems are currently in the NRLS deployment pipeline, for a total of 41 that are using or will be going live with this valuable service.

BurstIQ Announces Token Crowdsale for its Health Data Ecosystem and Marketplace
BurstIQ (@BurstIQ), the blockchain-based health data company, has announced the company’s BurstIQ Token (BiQ) crowdsale campaign and details for participation.

Edifecs Modernizes Nebraska Medicaid Program with Smart Trading Platform
Edifecs, Inc. (@edifecs), a global health information technology solutions company, announced the successful implementation and go-live of the Nebraska Medicaid program’s new electronic data interchange (EDI) platform. Replacing the aging platform mitigates major risks by having transactions with significant volume (inbound claims and encounters) now deployed onto Edifecs’ Smart Trading Platform, a solution specifically designed to simplify data automation and streamline interoperability.

AHIMA, IHE Seeking Public Comment on Patient Registration White Paper
Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise (IHE) and the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) (@AHIMAResources) are seeking public comments on their joint white paper entitled “Patient Registration Demographic Data Capture and Exchange.”