GE Healthcare announced it has aligned with the nation’s second largest Regional Extension Center, New York eHealth Collaborative (NYeC), to increase physician EMR adoption and support meaningful use attainment in the state of New York.

David Whitlinger, executive director of NYeC, said in a statement the Meaningful Use program is a very important incentive for providers. He said establishing a group of Meaningful Use partners will increase the number of providers who can receive services from NYeC and will help physicians, who have become EHR users, learn how to qualify for federal health information technology incentives.

NYeC, which has a mission to improve the quality of patient care through health information technology, was founded in 2006 and later designated by the federal government and the State of New York to advance Health Information Technology (HIT) statewide. While NYeC receives support and official designations from the state and federal governments, it is an independent collaborative.

NYeC partners with stakeholders from around the state and across the nation to promote innovation, provide the support, and establish the policies necessary to advance HIT in New York. To that end, NYeC communicates with providers to help them understand the benefits of HIT and adopt the electronic health records systems in their practices. NYeC is also an educational resource for providers and consumers about HIT in general. Under this agreement, GE Healthcare takes a central role in NYeC’s plans.

There are currently 62 government-funded Regional Extension Centers (RECs) across the United States, and GE says it aligns with more than half of them today. GE Healthcare participates in RECs primarily through its two featured ambulatory products, Centricity Advance and Centricity Practice Solution. Both products featured integrated EMR and practice management solutions.