New Effort To Strengthen EHR-HIE Sharing Of Patient Data
By Christine Kern, contributing writer
A workgroup is working toward streamlining connectivity between EHRs and HIEs.
A strategic partnership between EHR | HIE Interoperability Workgroup (IWG), HIMSS and Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise (IHE) USA to streamline the process for achieving connectivity between EHR and HIE systems has been announced, according to a press release.
“This joint effort will help pave the way for health information to be exchanged seamlessly between systems, allowing clinicians and health systems to more easily and securely share patient data,” Dave Whitlinger, Executive Director of the New York eHealth Collaborative (NYeC), the coordinator of the Statewide Health Information Network of New York, stated in the release. “By making it easier for electronic health record systems to communicate, this new collaboration will help fulfill the promise of health information exchange, improving patient care and lowering healthcare costs.”
With this collaboration, more than half of the American population and their providers will be affected, giving them secure access to health data than can be shared across multiple states and systems smooth and accurately. The goal is to ensure that healthcare providers implementing health IT solutions buy products that are interoperable with other software products.
According to the release, “This effort builds on and accelerates consensus on national standards, adopting EHR certification criteria and testing procedures as relevant for Stage 2 Meaningful Use. The collaboration will continue to provide feedback to the national health IT standard-setting initiatives established by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC).”
“Both IWG and IHE USA have worked independently with notable accomplishments. However, the consolidation of our efforts, along with the commitment of these organizations, offers the most promise to create a real, lasting impact and make interoperability a reality in healthcare,” said Joyce Sensmeier, MS, RN-BC, CPHIMS, FHIMSS, FAAN, president of IHE USA.
“HIMSS, IWG and IHE USA recognize the definitive power of collaboration to reach our shared vision for robust, secure and interoperable health information exchange. This new program builds on current activities to certify EHR and HIE products that are able to reliably transfer data within and across organizational and state boundaries,” Carla Smith, MA, CNM, FHIMSS, Executive Vice President, HIMSS North America explained in the statement.