The grant will be implemented the following way:  one group of patients will be provided with a VIM PHR that they will access primarily via computer.  Patients in this group would have home access to a computer and internet connection or regular access at another location, such as the public library or at the VIM clinic. The second group will be provided with additional access to the PHR via a smartphone.  Patients in this group would either have a smartphone with a data plan or be in a position to upgrade easily to such a phone/plan.  These patients would be provided with a  monthly stipend (approximately $20 per month) to help subsidize their data plan with the stipend contingent on active participation/use of the PHR.  One of the tasks required would be to input their glucose readings into their phone, which would upload to their PHR.  The third group would not utilize the PHR and would serve as a control group.   All the patients who have their PHR activated would have it populated with the existing information that is held within the HealthLINC Clinical Messaging system now, so that historical data is available for comparison.

http://www.vimmonroecounty.org/

San Jose, Calif. Mar. 1, 2011 – Axolotl Corp. announced that two of its electronic health record (EHR) systems – Axolotl EHR, version 7 and Elysium EMR Lite – have received Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT Authorized Testing and Certification Body (ONC-ATCB) 2011/2012 certifications in accordance with Eligible Provider certification criteria adopted by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

 
“Complete EHR certification for Axolotl EHR version 7 and modular certification for Elysium EMR Lite reflects our commitment to giving health information exchanges a range of pre-integrated ambulatory EHR systems that they can offer to their physician members to enhance collaboration across patient care teams and throughout their communities,” said Glenn Keet, president of Axolotl.

The certifications confirm that these systems are capable of performing the required functions to help users comply with Stage 1 Meaningful Use measures that eligible providers must meet to qualify for Medicare and Medicaid health IT reimbursements available through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). Axolotl’s clients, which include hospitals, health systems, RHIOs, Accountable Care Organizations and State Designated Entities that use the Elysium® Exchange health information exchange (HIE) platform can now connect their affiliated providers using these pre-integrated EHR systems.

Axolotl EHR, version 7 is 2011/2012 compliant and was certified as a Complete EHR by the Certification Commission for Health Information Technology (CCHIT®), an ONC-ATCB. Axolotl EHR, version 7 provides a comprehensive and easy-to-use EHR and Practice Management system that helps doctors access important patient and clinical information, coordinate care with other care providers, manage their practice more efficiently and qualify for federal health IT incentives. The system also fully integrates with all of the operational functions of a physician practice, simplifying administrative tasks such as billing, scheduling and documentation.

Axolotl’s Elysium EMR Lite has been certified as an EHR Module by InfoGard Laboratories, an ONC-ATCB. As a pre-integrated module of Elysium Exchange HIE, Elysium EMR Lite helps caregivers quickly and effectively collaborate on patient care, share data and process referrals electronically. Axolotl’s Elysium EMR Lite has been certified for 21 modules; the company intends to obtain Complete EHR certification for Elysium EMR Lite by mid-year.

Read Full Release

QHN researches, acquires, and deploys cost-effective shared IT products and services that are essential to the success of western Colorado’s high performing healthcare communities. Currently, QHN supports more than 75% of medical providers in Mesa County and surrounding areas by connecting them to the HIE system. The numerous community participants include hospitals, physicians, surgical centers, emergency departments, pharmacies, extended care facilities, home health services, public health, hospices, and many others. More than 550 physicians currently use the system to help improve their care of patients. QHN helps facilitate the delivery of the right medical data to the right place at the right time with the goal of reducing costs, increasing efficiency and improving patient outcomes. QHN’s HIE has been recognized as a national leader and is a member of the Colorado Beacon Consortium.

QHN’s quality improvement efforts, which are focused on improving care transitions and care coordination within and between medical neighborhoods, is making a difference for all patients served by area providers. With the IT support of QHN, “patients are now being served by multiple providers, in multiple health care settings with confidence,” notes Amy Davis, MD, Medical Director of the Marillac Clinic, which provides medical services to low-income populations in Mesa County.

Beyond its original base in Grand Junction, QHN services have expanded successfully over the past year to support and incorporate other western Colorado medical communities in Montrose, Delta, Gunnison and Aspen. Initial results show that the adoption of QHN’s HIE tools is growing at a fast pace in order to securely share clinical information. This expansion plan for western Colorado has been facilitated by funding from area providers and from the generous support of the Colorado Health Foundation. Their support validates the vision of QHN’s founders and improves the ability of area physicians to deliver high quality care.

“QHN delivers an efficient, reliable and low cost clinical exchange solution for hospitals and doctors. Our community is pleased to be an early adopter of this quality improvement initiative,” said David Ressler, CEO of Aspen Valley Hospital (AVH). “We see a high value in providing our area physicians with timely access to complete patient information at the point of care. It helps them better serve their patients.” Similarly, David Hample, CEO of Montrose Memorial Hospital (MMH) said, “We recognize that patients benefit from the timely exchange of clinical information among all health care providers in our regional area. We want to improve patient satisfaction and reduce costs: and, our connection to the QHN HIE helps us do that.”

Using Axolotl’s Elysium Exchange, QHN will continue to expand into new medical neighborhoods to enhance electronic and technological capabilities, maintain exceptional privacy and security standards, and help providers and patients work together to improve outcomes and reduce costs. “A central tenet of QHN’s growth and high rate of adoption is an abiding respect for local leadership coupled with the provision of high quality support and guidance from QHN,” emphasized Jane Foster, QHN Clinical Director.

QHN is one of four local organizations comprising the Colorado Beacon Consortium. The consortium is one of 17 health IT pilot communities receiving grants, funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) to serve as a national model for the broad use of healthcare IT. “The Colorado Beacon Consortium’s mission is to optimize the health and quality of life for all members of the community through the meaningful use of health information technology, and improve the cost-effectiveness and quality of their health care regardless of personal means or coverage status,” said Dick Thompson, CEO of QHN.

Since its inception, QHN’s live operations have delivered nearly 7 million patient clinical results to regional medical providers. The network supports more than 120,000 server requests monthly from greater than 130 participating organizations. In addition, QHN provides HIPAA compliant transfer of over 500,000 electronic prescriptions to pharmacies in western Colorado on an annual basis. Their services are anticipated to grow exponentially over the next few years.

 December 01, 2010

For further Quality Health Network information contact:

Dick Thompson, CEO 970-248-0033
Christina Beck, Marketing & Communications 720-289-2565

View Source

San Jose, Calif. Oct. 13, 2010 – Axolotl Corp., the nationwide leader in health information exchange (HIE) services and solutions, announced today that Chesapeake Regional Information System for our Patients (CRISP), the state-designated entity for Maryland’s Health Information Exchange and Regional Extension Center (REC) has formally “gone live” with its statewide HIE using Axolotl’s Elysium® Exchange suite of applications.

Axolotl’s Elysium Exchange clinically networks disparate Health Information Systems (HIS) and Electronic Medical Records (EMRs) of health care providers, hospitals, public health organizations, long-term care facilities, federally qualified health centers, ambulatory care centers, radiology centers and laboratories for secure sharing of patient data when and where it is needed – providing safer, more timely, efficient, patient-centered care. Organizations that are now participating in the HIE include:

•Holy Cross Hospital
•Suburban Hospital
•Montgomery General Hospital
•Community Radiology (a RadNet partner)
•Advanced Radiology (a RadNet partner)
•American Radiology Services
•Quest Diagnostics
•Laboratory Corporation of America
Several more organizations will connect in the next few weeks.

With Elysium Exchange any provider will eventually be able to electronically exchange information seamlessly and naturally with other participants on the HIE. Physicians will be able to communicate directly from their EMR over an Internet connection, without the use of specialized hardware in the practice – bi-directionally sharing referrals, laboratory results, radiology reports, and other patient data, instantly and securely. Additionally, the Elysium Virtual Health Record (VHR) will provide all authorized physicians with single-click access to aggregated patient data from across the entire continuum of care.

“We at Holy Cross Hospital believe a statewide health information exchange can help make care safer and more efficient for Marylanders,” said Kevin J. Sexton, President and CEO of Holy Cross Hospital. “We are delighted to join CRISP, state government and other health care providers in getting Maryland to this important milestone.”

Additionally, all 48 Maryland hospitals have recently committed to sharing data with the statewide HIE. This commitment covers 11,175 in-patient beds, from Garrett County to the Eastern Shore.

Other hospitals, physician practices, and clinics will be coming online before the end of the year, including many of the state’s federally qualified health clinics, which predominantly serve Medicaid, uninsured and other underserved patients. CRISP will also be expanding the kinds of data the HIE is able to exchange as participation grows, from today’s hospital discharge summaries, lab results and radiology results to medical documents that contain more complete medical information, sometimes referred to as continuity of care documents, or “CCDs”.

“Today’s announcement, while exciting evidence of the hard work of numerous stakeholders, is not an endpoint. Rather it’s the beginning of a process which will give physicians new and more effective tools to provide the best care to their patients,” said David Horrocks, President of CRISP.

This summer, Lt. Governor Brown joined Governor Martin O’Malley to convene a roundtable forum of industry leaders and experts, including medical system presidents, hospital CEOs, state officials and other stakeholders to discuss health care reform and innovation in Maryland. The governor has set a goal for the state to become a national leader in health information technology by 2010 by developing a safe and secure statewide HIE and promoting the adoption of electronic medical records among providers. Maryland is well on its way to achieving that goal.

“This is a major step in developing an electronic system that protects individual privacy while improving the quality of health care and controlling costs,” said Lt. Governor Anthony G. Brown. “Soon, every Marylander will be able to enjoy the benefits of having their critical medical information delivered with speed and accuracy to the point of care, avoiding medical mistakes especially in case of an emergency.”

View related articles

iHealthBeat

Baltimore Business Journal

Dayton, OH – The Greater Dayton Area Hospital Association (GDAHA) today announced its partnership with HealthBridge, a not-for-profit health information exchange located in Cincinnati, to establish health information exchange services for the Greater Dayton region. This partnership will create one of the nation’s largest secure health information networks connecting hospitals and physicians in Dayton and Cincinnati. Once the Dayton-Cincinnati health information exchange is complete, more than 50 hospitals and 7,500 physicians will be connected across Southwest, Ohio.

“Hospitals in the Dayton region have been innovators and leaders in the national movement to use electronic health information in our community,”   said Bryan Bucklew, President and CEO of GDAHA.  “They are now expanding their ability to share electronic information through secure channels with providers. These connections will improve the quality of care available to patients in our community.” 

The use of cutting edge technology among hospitals in the Dayton region is a continuation of the collaboration on health information technology that began with the adoption of Epic, an electronic medical records system, by Premier Health Partners, the Kettering Health Network, and The Children’s Medical Center of Dayton.  

Electronic medical records and the connection provided by the Dayton health information exchange will transmit a patient’s information through secure networks to improve the quality of care and reduce cost by eliminating duplicative services. A patient’s medical history will be readily available to doctors and nurses in the hospital or the physician’s office.  

Too often physicians do not have the most current information from other providers when they see a patient. The ability of a patient’s health information to follow the patient electronically from hospital to doctor’s office to lab and back will result in better quality of care and lower costs. 

“Technology and connectivity are fundamental to advancing the quality and efficiency of healthcare,” said Keith Hepp, Vice President of Business Development at HealthBridge. “We are delighted to work with GDAHA and the Dayton provider community to rapidly expand the ability to connect and share health information securely to improve patient care.”

Connectivity through HealthBridge will start with nine hospitals that are part of Premier Health Partners and the Kettering Health Network.  By the end of 2011, 80 percent of GDAHA hospitals, CompuNet Clinical Labs, and Public Health – Dayton and Montgomery County will be connected to the Dayton health information exchange. 80 percent of area physicians will be connected by the end of 2012. 

The importance of electronic medical records is  underscored by GDAHA’s commitment to help the Dayton region’s provider community prepare for the “meaningful use” of health information technology.  As part of the economic stimulus legislation passed in 2009, meaningful use means health care providers must demonstrate a wide set of electronic capabilities to qualify for thousands of dollars in incentive payments. GDAHA will work with physicians to ensure that they receive the financial and technical assistance to achieve the meaningful use of health information technology through the Greater Dayton Area Health Information Network Regional Extension Center. 

“We’re very proud to be working with a pioneer in health information exchange like HealthBridge,” said Bryan Bucklew.  “The proximity and patient movement between the Dayton and Cincinnati communities makes working with HealthBridge a natural fit for our provider community.”

The Greater Dayton Area Hospital Association (GDAHA) is a member-service organization representing 23 hospitals and health systems in the Dayton region.  GDAHA collaborates with its members to improve the delivery of healthcare services in Auglaize, Butler, Darke, Champaign, Clark, Greene, Miami, Montgomery, Preble, Shelby, and Warren Counties in West Central Ohio.   GDAHA offers value-added services that help members improve operating efficiency and maintain quality standards.

 About HealthBridge

Since its founding in 1997 as a non-profit community-based organization, HealthBridge has grown to become one of the largest, most advanced and financially successful health information exchange organizations in the United States. Each month roughly 3 million clinical lab tests, radiology reports, discharge summaries and other health information are transmitted electronically to more than 5,500 authorized physicians through HealthBridge’s secure technology network, more than nearly any other collaborative health information organization in the country. Dedicated to helping providers and communities achieve meaningful use of health information technology, HealthBridge also operates the Tri-State Regional Extension Center and the Collaborating Communities Network of health information exchange organizations. HealthBridge has been recognized in many publications for its innovative practices including the Wall Street Journal, eHealth Initiative, and HIMSS, just to name a few.  For more information about HealthBridge, see www.healthbridge.org.

San Jose, Calif. Oct. 7, 2010 –The Health Information Partnership for Tennessee (HIP TN), a partnership of stakeholders working to establish a health information exchange (HIE) in Tennessee, today announced that it  has selected the Elysium® Exchange technology platform from Axolotl Corp., the nationwide leader in health information exchange services and solutions, to build the state’s HIE infrastructure. Key partners leading the state HIE effort are the State of Tennessee, HIP TN, and the Tennessee Regional Extension Center.

HIP TN is a Tennessee not-for-profit organization that works to improve access to health information through a statewide collaborative process by providing services and infrastructure for the secure electronic exchange and use of health information. HIP TN is working with state eHealth officials to establish a “network of networks” across the state that can be accessed by qualified organizations representing providers, physicians, hospitals, other health care organizations and consumers.

“Tennessee will be a national leader in providing access to health information to improve the quality and accuracy of health care,” said HIP TN Board Chair Dr. Robert Mandel. “Axolotl will be our partner as we connect current and future networks of local health information exchanges over the next 12 months to create an overarching statewide network.”

Tennessee currently has health information organizations in Northeast Tennessee, operated by CareSpark, and in Memphis, operated by the Mid-South eHealth Alliance. Similar organizations are being formed in Middle Tennessee and Chattanooga.

Tennessee’s statewide HIE framework includes:
• Core services, such as an electronic provider directory and master facilities index that enables health care providers to locate, positively identify and determine how they can securely exchange information with one another
• Enterprise services to help qualified HIE organizations connect with statewide Immunization Services, Public Health Reporting and Lab Reporting Services
• Value-Added services for inclusion within the statewide HIE framework based on the feasibility, cost and value of the proposed service
• Connectivity to qualified HIE organizations across the state for the exchange of clinical information using the existing HIEs in each region

HIP TN’s plan to leverage and connect existing HIEs across the state will provide an efficient and cost-effective means to share clinical data. HIP TN and Axolotl, together with the regional qualified organizations, will deliver a connectivity platform that is aligned with the needs of participants across the state. The platform includes easy-to-use core services, leverages existing infrastructure and provides options for accessing the network to those stakeholders not yet participating in an exchange.

Axolotl’s Elysium Exchange is a suite of applications that clinically connects all health care providers and organizations in a medical trading area, region or state. Using Elysium Open Access, Axolotl’s state-of-the-art, standards-based service-oriented architecture (SOA) platform and a core part of Elysium Exchange, Axolotl will provide standards-based interfaces to HIP TN’s identified qualified organizations representing existing HIEs, physicians, hospitals, other health care organizations and consumers. 

Axolotl’s Inter-HIE Gateway will provide interfaces to HIP TN’s three regional qualified organizations, supporting health information exchange across HIE systems, and support multiregional workflow requirements. Based on the standards and principles of the Nationwide Health Information Network (NHIN), as well as standards defined by IHE, HITSP, HHS/ONC, and others, the Inter-HIE Gateway will support a variety of exchanges of patient data across HIEs, regardless of the HIE system as long as it is compliant with nationally recognized standards. Furthermore, Axolotl will provide standards-based interfaces to three Tennessee State organizations and/or services (such as Tennessee State Immunization Registry and Medication Management). Lastly, Axolotl’s Elysium Public Health Gateway (EPHG) will facilitate timely, standards-based, bi-directional communication between providers who are part of the HIE network and local, state, and national departments of health. 

Axolotl’s Elysium solution will provide the connection capability across disparate health systems within Tennessee that are serving some of the state’s 6 million residents, current and future qualified organizations, and the NHIN, while complying with federal and state standards, laws, and policies, and will help enable health care providers to achieve Meaningful Use of health information technology.

“We appreciate the opportunity to work with HIP TN and the other state stakeholders to build a next-generation HIE platform for the state,” said Ray Scott, CEO of Axolotl.  “We look forward to connecting the qualified organizations and facilitating the state to electronically share health information to improve the quality of patient care.”

This work is being funded through an $11 million grant by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology to help connect existing HIEs in Tennessee and reduce the cost of sharing electronic health information between these entities.

HIP TN will be Axolotl’s sixth state HIE customer, after Idaho, Maryland, Nebraska, Utah and, in partnership with ACS, Kentucky. Axolotl also is engaged in a number of other statewide and RHIO initiatives around the country.

About Health Information Partnership for Tennessee (HIP TN)
Health Information Partnership for Tennessee (HIP TN) is a non-profit organization formed in 2009 which works to improve access to health information through a statewide collaborative process by providing services and infrastructure for the secure electronic exchange and use of health information. HIP TN brings together stakeholders representing the state’s health care providers, health plans, physicians, businesses and consumers to create a health information exchange that will enable the right medical information to get to the right provider at the right time to enhance patient care. For more information, please visit www.hiptn.org

About Axolotl Corp
Founded in 1995, Axolotl Corp. is North America’s leading provider of browser-based products and services for secure health information exchange and management. Its Elysium® Exchange suite of solutions enables health care providers to instantly share information, reduce costs and improve quality and efficiency.

Elysium helps thousands of health care entities—including hospitals, health systems, regional health information organizations (RHIOs/HIEs), clinics, laboratories, radiology centers and physician practices—to securely exchange clinical information for more than 35 million patients. Elysium’s community-wide Master Patient Index, EdgeServer(s), Interoperability Hub (I-Hub), Community Virtual Health Record (VHR), and ambulatory EMR with integrated e-Prescribing are all provided as software as a service (SaaS). Axolotl-employed U.S.-based transcriptionists, combined with an integrated NLP engine, provide high-quality medical transcription services for acute and ambulatory care environments connected to Elysium HIEs.

Axolotl is part of Ingenix, a leading health information technology and services company. Based in San Jose, Axolotl is known for introducing Clinical Messaging®, now at the heart of all advanced health information exchange. For more information visit www.axolotl.com and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/axolotlcorp/

Contact:  
Elvia Watts, Press Relations Manager, Axolotl Corp, 408-920-0800 x.176, pr@axolotl.com

Read Full Article
Source: NEJM.com

“The basic premise is that there is no one particular thing that if implemented at a community level would produce effective, sustainable quality cost improvements,” McKethan said.

In addition to the 15 communities chosen earlier this year, HHS announced last week the two final communities to participate in the Beacon Community Program: Detroit and Cincinnati. Under the program, the Greater Cincinnati HealthBridge in Ohio and the Southeastern Michigan Health Association (SEMHA) in Detroit will receive $13.8 and $16.2 million, respectively, over three years.

Cincinnati and Detroit were awarded Beacon Community status on the same criteria as the original 15 communities, including performance improvement goals, the vision of the community over the course of the program, clarity around community-specific goals that builds on an existing IT infrastructure and the sustainability of performance improvements over the long haul, said McKethan.

For example, in Cincinnati, the Beacon Community Program funds will enable HealthBridge to build on its health information exchange (HIE) capabilities to improve patient care, McKethan said. This will require HealthBridge to invest in care managers and take additional steps to access data and use them in ways that haven’t been done, he said.

In addition, the Cincinnati Beacon Community wants to sustain its efforts by showing major commercial payors in the region that the HealthBridge program adds “considerable value” to the bottom line of improving healthcare delivery quality and slows the growth of spending for delivery of care, according to McKethan.

Healthbridge hopes to engage Medicare, Medicaid and the major private payors during and after the Beacon Community Program to pay into the system on the basis of quality and value instead of the basis of volume and intensity of services. Hopefully, this will be achieved with a demonstrated track record of improvements in both quality and value, McKethan said.

“One of the critical features of the Beacon program is the belief that producing consistent performance measures at the community level–cost, quality and population of health–can be helpful at the local level to help physicians know on an ongoing basis if their interventions are working and how they might be changed as they go forward,” he said.  “Achieving quality improvement locally is an iterative process.”

Beacon Communities are now establishing a baseline of performance measures data to pinpoint their starting point and to track their communities’ improvements. All program members will be recording performance measures on a quarterly basis to understand how their efforts are translating to better care, and will send those results to each other, their community partners and to ONC as a way to evaluate their project, said McKethan. ONC will report on the performance measures in the future, he said.

Many of the Beacon programs focus on using IT to improve care for chronic conditions such as asthma, heart failure and diabetes. McKethan expects Beacon Communities to develop performance measures for such things as avoidable hospital readmissions for patients who have been hospitalized for chronic conditions, or emergency room utilization.

Other measures might include smoking cessation rates or rates at which smokers are offered cessation therapy, he said.

“We’re going to release the measures each community is collecting or reporting on in a month or so, once they’re finalized, and that will be an open, transparent process,” said McKethan.

In addition, ONC is seeking a scientifically valid third-party evaluator of the Beacon Community Program, and will release an evaluation contract for potential bidders in a few weeks, he said.

After three years, expansion of the program would require further congressional action. Although “we are not anticipating [further congressional action to extend the program], we would be delighted for more communities across the country to take similar steps. We are prepared for other communities to receive benefits from the program even if we don’t expand from the formal program,” concluded McKethan.
a scientifically valid third-party evaluator of the Beacon Community ProgramLast Updated ( Wednesday, September 08 2010 )

View full document

WASHINGTON, DC – July 22, 2010 – Today, the eHealth Initiative (eHI) released a new report entitled The State of Health Information Exchange in 2010: Connecting the Nation to Achieve Meaningful Use. The report identifies significant growth in the industry, as well as rising concerns related to new government policies, and an increased focus on patients. The
report was shared with several hundred state and industry leaders during the National Forum on Health Information Exchange in Washington, DC.

The eHealth Initiative has been tracking the progress of health information exchange initiatives for seven years. This year, eHI identified 234 active health information exchange initiatives across the country and 199 organizations responded to the annual survey. Several key findings emerged from the survey results:

Despite recent funding, significant challenges exist to supporting provider attainment of meaningful use.  The survey revealed that despite expanding capabilities, the ability of HIEs to support providers as they become Stage 1 meaningful user will be challenged by the current number of operational exchanges and current capacity of health information exchange initiatives.

“From the results, it is clear that health information exchange initiatives are focused on supplying the services that will help providers reach their targets,” Commented Micky Tripathi,PhD, President and CEO of Massachusetts eHealth Collaborative. “While we’re on the right track with the service offerings, we still haven’t achieved the necessary critical mass of participation.”

More research is needed to determine the key characteristics of sustainable systems.  The report confirms that sustainability remains one the key challenges before the initiatives. The State Designated Entities (SDEs) are new entrants in the field, and it is not clear what will be their impact on the initiatives.

“The State Designated Entities (SDEs) are poised to foster growth across the field of health information exchange,” said Dr. Marc Overhage, Director of Regenstrief Institute and CEO of Indiana Health Information Exchange. “Among other challenges, the SDEs are going to face the question how to keep the doors open once the federal funding ends. Failure to sustain the SDEs may hinder the overall advancement of health information exchange.”

New challenges are rapidly emerging related to federal policy and governance of the health information exchanges. 131 initiatives cited addressing government policy mandates as a major challenge.

More organizations are reporting cost savings through reductions in staff time and redundant testing through the use of health information exchange.  More initiatives reported health information exchange had reduced staff time spent on clerical administration and filing (33); reduced staff time spent on handling lab and radiology results (30); and decreased dollars spent on redundant tests (28).

Health information exchange initiatives have increased their focus on patients.  Initiatives are providing greater access to patients to not only view (44 in 2010 up from 3 in 2009), but to also update their health information (31 in 2010 up from 7 in 2009).

“There is definite progress here, but it doesn’t mean we can rest on our laurels,” noted Jennifer Covich Bordenick, CEO at eHealth Initiative. “More initiatives and providers need to document cost savings, and promote services that involve patients in their healthcare.”

The report and an interactive map of health information exchange activity are available on the eHI website at: http://www.ehealthinitiative.org/

Printing and dissemination of the survey report was supported by: Axolotl, Microsoft, Navinet,Partners HealthCare and Thompson Reuters.

 For more information, visit http://www.ehealthinitiative.org/2010-07-22.html