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| November 2006 |
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Top RHIO News | Advocacy and Public Policy | RHIO Spotlight | Technology Corner | Calendar of Events |
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Overcoming Ten Non-Technical Challenges of RHIOs Overcoming Ten Non-Technical Challenges of RHIOs is a new report that discusses the challenges of RHIOs and provides insights on how to address them. The top five challenges include a common vision and purpose, leadership, effective governance, inclusion of all stakeholders, and collaboration and competition. Some of the stakeholders may be competitors so these issues must be dealt with at the outset. Other significant challenges are a commitment to focus and priorities, explicit benefits and value for stakeholders, financial feasibility, agreements on data sharing, and privacy and security. Tennessee HIE Paving the Way for CHRs One-third of Tennessee's residents now have a Shared Health Clinical Health Record after Nissan North America's Tennessee-based employees and BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee employees and members recently joined Shared Health, the country's largest public-private health information exchange (HIE). NGA to Help Lead Health IT Transformation The National Governors Association (NGA) and the Health and Human Services Department’s (HHS) Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT recently announced they were rolling out the State Alliance for e-Health initiative. The initiative allows governors, elected officials and other policymakers to work together in seeking interstate- and intrastate-based health IT policies and practices. The alliance also gives state officials the opportunity to discuss solutions to programmatic and legal challenges surrounding the exchange of health information. Northeast Pennsylvania RHIO Gaining Momentum The Northeast Pennsylvania RHIO system will be a patient-centered and community-based network serving the region extending to Scranton, Tunkhannock, Pottsville and Sunbury, with a central office, possibly in Wilkes-Barre.
AHIC Approves Interoperability Standards and Work Group on Genetic Testing The American Health Information Community (AHIC) on Tuesday approved Healthcare Information Technology Standards Panel (HITSP) interoperability standards and created a seventh work group on genetic testing. HITSP Chairman John Halamka, the chief information officer at Harvard Medical School and CareGroup Health Systems, Boston, and John Loonsk, director of the Office of Interoperability and Standards with the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology at HHS, made the presentation of a work product, including 820 pages of implementation guides, which they said is now ready for field testing. NAHIT Releases Progress Report on HHS’ NHIN A progress report issued by the National Alliance for Health IT (NAHIT) examines action taken on the 14 recommendations set last year by the Commission on Systemic Interoperability to establish a national health information network. The report states HHS has "acted to some degree" on eight of the recommendations, but Congress has not acted on any. HHS this summer issued final rules on the commission's recommendation to amend current law to allow hospitals and others to donate IT and related services to physicians. Congress, however, did not pass legislation that contained more comprehensive revisions. HIMSS Director of Business Information Systems Presents at NHIN Forum HIMSS Director of Business Information Systems Pam Matthews presented on a panel during the second Nationwide Health Information Network (NHIN) Forum on October 17 in Washington, DC. The panel discussion focused on proposed processes for Auditing Data Access to EHRs and PHRs at the local, regional, and national levels. Matthews reflected her experiences as a clinician and former CIO in recommending to attendees that addressing security, access, and auditing must be an organizational solution, not just something left to the IT team. She recommended that certain issues need to be addressed regardless of whether the effort is local or part of the NHIN. In fact, data auditing must be performed in an efficient and cost effective manner that produces a high level of data quality. In turn, all players must be: As a final note, Matthews reminded the attendees that they will not go wrong if they establish a process where “The right person accesses the right software and views the right data on the right patient.”
UPMC Announce $84 Million Initiative to Share Seamless Data The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) reports that the medical center and dbMotion are working together on an $84 million initiative to create one of the largest models of interoperability in healthcare. Both UPMC and dbMotion anticipate that this initiative will be an interoperability model for regional and national health information networks. dbMotion will receive at least $35 million of this amount to provide a flexible platform so that UPMC clinicians will be able to securely access integrated patient information across its 19 hospitals and 400 outpatient sites and doctors offices without needing to replace existing systems. According to UPMC Chief Information Officer Dan Drawbaugh “This initiative will allow physicians to have current, relevant patient information and advanced decision support tools at the point-of-care. Many healthcare organizations have been promised advance interoperability but in reality, few solutions are available today.”
Communities and IT Driving Massachusetts RHIO
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Don't delay – Connecting Communities Regional Forums are coming to a city near you! As regional health information organizations (RHIOs) and Health Information Exchange (HIE) initiatives ramp up for dynamic growth, plan to attend a CME-accredited, one-day educational forum to gain key insights and practical advice on these state, regional and community-based efforts.
Complimentary Nov. 17 Webinar on Elections & Healthcare HIMSS Office of Advocacy & Public Policy is offering a complimentary webinar for all members to analyze the major election results and assess their affect on the 110th Congress and the on-going healthcare transformation.
Register Now for HIMSS07 and…
The 2007 HIMSS Interoperability Showcase features cutting-edge technology and standards that create an interactive environment where attendees experience interoperability and see how they can participate in the management of their own healthcare. Attendees will be able to create their electronic health record and access it across multiple healthcare settings within the Showcase, which will be structured as a HIMSS Regional Health Information Infrastructure Organization (RHIO). Clinical scenarios will be enabled by the standards-based Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise (IHE) framework. Last year, more than 3,000 of HIMSS' annual conference attendees visited the Interoperability Showcase and more than 700 attendees created and tracked their own health record. During the process, they interacted with 48 different vendor applications from 37 individual vendors who have adopted IHE as part of their interoperability strategy. Online registration is available.
HIMSS RHIO Connection is your official source for timely, comprehensive coverage and analysis of the RHIO Revolution. We hope you have enjoyed the RHIO Connection. If you and your colleagues would like to permanently subscribe to each and every complimentary edition, click here. HIMSS Business Information Systems Team
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The alliance will be a consensus-based, state-level advisory and coordinating body. Through the group, states will be able to identify, assess and map ways to resolve state-level issues, such as the interoperability of electronic health information exchanges. States will work through the alliance to improve collaboration and boost the efficiency and effectiveness of health IT, the NGA said. The alliance also will give states a chance to resolve privacy and security issues on the use and disclosure of electronic health information. Through the alliance, officials will get a chance to learn from and leverage national efforts and resources in building an interoperable health information exchange.