Why is that important? It gives caregivers the information they need at the time they need it to improve patient outcomes.

“The single most important thing,” said Andrew VanZee, state health IT director, “is to provide information at the point of care.”

Imagine your aging parent falls ill while visiting you from another part of the state. Then think about taking this loved one to your local ER knowing physicians there can call up a medical record and learn about your parent’s chronic conditions, medications or recent surgeries. Or, what if you were that ER doctor; how helpful would the information be in your treatment plan?

Devising a roadmap
Our state has a strategic roadmap for health information technology projects and electronic connectivity, as well as funding to move us down that road over the next five years. VanZee detailed those plans at a CME session offered during the ISMA convention last month.

Strategies encompass the five pillars shown in the diagram, working with Indiana’s current health information exchanges: HealthBridge, HealthLINC, MedWeb, MHIN (Michiana Health Information Exchange) and IHIE or Indiana Health Information Exchange.

Connectivity goals call for helping an additional 30 rural/critical access hospitals to exchange information, as well as 100 federal qualified health centers and rural health clinics, and 50 lab and radiology facilities. Most existing connectivity is in large metropolitan areas and along major highways.

Already efforts are underway to complete data mapping and normalization that will provide preferred standards for data elements. “That is so the various information exchanges around the state can talk to each other,” explained Van Zee.

The standards will cover patient identification, radiology and lab results, and clinical documents.

Privacy and security are part of the plan, too. Funding already granted will help with policy development, gap analyses and planning to address any gaps discovered in the safeguarding of information.

“The goal is to improve the process to help information flow both ways,” VanZee explained. For example, physician offices will send text or exam results to hospitals, as well as receive information from those hospitals.

Read more on the Indiana Health IT website.

View Full ISMA e-Report  
 10/20/2010

INDIANAPOLIS, Oct. 16 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — In an unprecedented collaborative effort, the State of Indiana under Governor Mitch Daniels’ leadership, and Indiana’s five independent health information exchanges and four state organizations, spearheaded by BioCrossroads, submitted an application today to receive federal stimulus funding for a statewide health information technology (HIT) program. If awarded, several million dollars in funding would be provided by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act’s Cooperative Agreement Program (CAP) which will be used to further enhance the quality and reach of the State of Indiana’s HIT delivery system.
 
The four-year grant would not only assist in advancing Indiana’s position as a leader in sustainable, secure, standards-based health information exchange (HIE), which securely sends clinical test results, reports and other medical information, but would also improve the quality, safety, and efficiency of patient care statewide. If awarded the CAP funding, the State of Indiana will further develop a state governance structure to continue encouraging collaboration among health information exchanges, the state, and regional extension centers.

The newly formed governance organization, now known as Indiana Health Information Technology, Inc. (IHIT), will promote alliances and innovation among the State’s five independent exchanges including:

 
as well as four state organizations:

 
 ”This effort not only solidifies Indiana’s leadership position in health information technology, but illustrates the commitment we have made in both our private and public sectors to work together to improve health care,” said David Johnson, President and CEO of BioCrossroads. “Indiana is home to the strongest health IT sector anywhere in the United States today, so it makes perfect sense for us to continue pioneering this effort.”

As a precursor to this effort, BioCrossroads also orchestrated the development Exibhit Indiana (Expanding Indiana’s Breakthroughs in Health Information Technology), an initiative focused on advancing the development and effective use of HIT within Indiana and across the U.S.  www.exibhitindiana.com currently showcases the five independent HIEs in Indiana that include millions of patient records and thousands of physicians.
If awarded the federal funding grant, the IHIT will further enhance the availability and adoption of these critical existing services affording significant health care cost savings and improved patient outcomes for every corner of the state.

“With the help of operating health information exchanges, a roster of progressive hospitals and physicians complemented by innovative entrepreneurial organizations and a long history of groundbreaking HIT research at our universities, the State of Indiana is poised to continue leading the nation in health care IT,” said Anne Murphy, Secretary, Indiana Family and Social Services Administration. “The CAP funding will help us continue this role by enhancing the existing infrastructure to positively
impact health care at all levels.”
 
“To promote and advance health information technology as one of our state’s true life sciences clusters, BioCrossroads assembled  the coalition and orchestrated the effort to develop this extensive proposal and establish its governing organization,” said Johnson.  “We look forward to the new organization leading the charge by facilitating the proposed plan for further connectivity and additional healthcare delivery improvements.” “Indiana’s leadership in life sciences spans over decades of time and is further cultivated by the state’s significant advances in health information technology.  By more effectively managing vital health information, we are creating synergies for the numerous providers and commercial partners in Indiana’s healthcare landscape,” said Mitch Roob, Indiana Secretary of Commerce and Chief Executive Officer of the Indiana Economic Development Corporation. “This important collaboration by the IHIT team leverages the best in Indiana’s life sciences resources and solidifies our preeminent position in the industry.”
The State will be notified of funding availability in mid-December.  The newly created IHIT will then assume full responsibility, commencing as early as January 15, 2010, to facilitate efforts with participating state organizations, HIEs, hospitals, physicians, and the national grantors.

About BioCrossroads

 
 
SOURCE  BioCrossroads

Lori LeRoy, +1-317-238-2456, lleroy@biocrossroads.com, or JoBeth Zimmerman,
+1-317-331-6547, jzimmerman@biocrossroads.com, both of BioCrossroads

Three Indiana and Ohio organizations today started securely sending clinical test results, reports and other medical information among their health information exchanges (HIEs), a first in the U.S. These HIEs – HealthBridge in Cincinnati, Ohio, Indiana Health Information Exchange (IHIE) in Indianapolis,

 Indiana and HealthLINC in Bloomington, Indiana – have each been innovators and pioneers in a national trend to enable medical information to flow electronically between doctors and hospitals.

These organizations have been exchanging health information securely within their regions for years. But, now they facilitate exchange among their regions as well, using clinical information standards to enable the transfer of data.

Read More

PR-inside.com          September 3, 2009