Healthix, the nation’s largest public health information exchange (HIE) has announced the integration of its public HIE system to private HIEs operated by Northwell Health and the Mount Sinai Health System. All three HIEs are built on InterSystems HealthShare, which is enabling the organizations to exchange richer and more comprehensive patient data. All three HIEs are built on InterSystems HealthShare®, a robust information exchange platform that enables the organizations to exchange richer and more comprehensive patient data.
Healthix brings together data from healthcare organizations throughout greater New York City and Long Island, to create composite profiles of more than 16 million patients. Healthix data contributors include hospitals, health insurance plans, physician practices, behavioral health facilities, long-term care facilities, Medicaid health homes, New York City correctional facilities, independent labs and radiology centers, independent pharmacies, community-based care organizations, as well as data available from other qualified entities, or local hubs for electronic health information, in the Statewide Health Information Network of New York (SHIN-NY).
With the integration, clinical data generated by Northwell and Mount Sinai (two of the largest health systems in NY) is now available in real time to every other organization in the Healthix network – and vice versa – without building multiple interfaces. This will greatly expand the patient information available to care providers and payers, and serves as a significant step forward in the path to true interoperability and connected healthcare.
With New York State’s support and guidance, qualified entities (QEs) such as Healthix have been tasked with expanding the number and type of data elements available to support Delivery System Reform Incentive Payment (DSRIP) programs. They are charged with fundamentally restructuring the healthcare delivery system by reinvesting in the Medicaid program, with the primary goal of reducing avoidable hospital use by 25 percent over five years—and other value-based care programs.
“Connecting our information systems with others was challenging with traditional interfaces, and ongoing maintenance was expensive; we had more than 40 interfaces to manage,” said Dr. Vish Anantraman, Chief Information Architect, in Northwell Health’s Information Technology group in a statement. “Now with just one interface, we can easily send all the data from our systems to Healthix and the SHIN-NY, it is less expensive to operate, and we have richer clinical data for care coordination.”
