HIE

The National eHealth Collaborative (NeHC), the Washington, D.C.-based public-private health IT advocate organization, is moving ahead in both health information exchange (HIE) and patient engagement initiatives. In a conversation with HCI's Associate Editor Gabriel Perna, NeHC CEO Kate Berry, talked about the upcoming work the organization is set to do in a pair of critical areas within the healthcare landscape.

The State of Maryland recently unveiled a Health Enterprise Zone Initiative to reduce health disparities and hospital re-admissions. Can HIE data bolster the effort?

Kansas Health Information Network (KHIN) and the Informatics Corporation of America (ICA), a Nashville, Tenn.-based provider of interoperability technology that enables care coordination and health information exchange (HIE), have announced they have successfully transmitted immunizations through the ICA CareAlign HIE platform from the Community Health Center of Southeast Kansas, a federally qualified health center, to the Kansas Immunization Registry, KSWebIZ.

The Massachusetts eHealth Collaborative (MAeHC), a non-profit organization which has led the charge in the Bay State and New England for health information exchange (HIE), is going to attempt to implement an HIE in the state of New Hampshire, in conjunction with the New Hampshire Health Information Organization (NHHIO). MAeHC will provide executive director management services for the New Hampshire HIE.

I have been dismayed over the past year to see how many articles in the New York Times seem to start with the notion that the nationwide transition to EHRs is being carried out under faulty premises about financial savings or leading to negative outcomes, because the implied conclusion is that we are throwing our money away and just making things worse. Finally, an article in this week's paper suggests otherwise.