CommonWell Health Alliance and Carequality have announced an agreement that will provide the capability for more than 15,000 hospitals, clinics, and other healthcare organizations to connect and share health information. The collaboration brings together two pioneers at the forefront of data sharing.
Health data sharing among providers is important whenever a provider is making a diagnostic or treatment decision and needs access to key medical information. By leveraging health IT interoperability, providers can avoid adverse events such as allergic reactions or medication conflicts as well as duplicate procedures, potentially reducing time, costs, and unnecessary hospital admissions.
Independently, Carequality and CommonWell represent large swaths of the healthcare community, but together, their members and participants represent more than 90 percent of the acute EHR market and nearly 60 percent of the ambulatory EHR market – which positions the nation firmly on the path to achieving secure, nationwide health data exchange.
As part of the collaboration:
– CommonWell will become a Carequality implementer on behalf of its members and their clients, enabling CommonWell subscribers to engage in health information exchange through directed queries with any Carequality participant.
– Carequality will work with CommonWell to make a Carequality-compliant version of the CommonWell record locator service available to any provider organization participating in Carequality.
– CommonWell and The Sequoia Project, the non-profit parent under which Carequality operates, have agreed to these initial connectivity efforts and will explore additional collaboration opportunities in the future.
“To achieve nationwide interoperability that truly improves patient care, two things are required: collaboration across the healthcare industry and the will to take real action. We’re doing both,” said Jitin Asnaani, executive director of CommonWell Health Alliance. “Our vision has always been for a patient’s health data to follow him/her regardless of where care occurs, and in turn give providers and caregivers increased access to critical health data when and where it is needed. We believe this connectivity between CommonWell and Carequality will continue to move the country forward on its path to achieving nationwide data exchange by bringing together such a sizeable majority of providers and patients that there will be no turning back for American health care.”
