What You Should Know: - Fresenius Kidney Care, the dialysis services
division of Fresenius Medical Care North America, rolled out CommonWell health
data exchange services to its dialysis facilities nationwide. - This initiative is a significant stride towards better-coordinated care for patients requiring life-sustaining dialysis for kidney failure and will enable the real-time exchange of critical patient health information--allowing healthcare providers to access the most
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Accounting for the Social Determinants of Health During the COVID-19 Pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic is not just a medical crisis. Since the highly contagious disease hit American shores in early 2020, the virus has dramatically changed all sectors of society, negatively impacting everything from food supply chains and sporting events to the nation’s mental and behavioral health. For some people, work-from-home plans and limited access to entertainment are manageable obstacles. For others, the shuttered schools, lost wages, and social isolation spell disaster –
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The COVID-19 Data Challenges Facing Payers
Both payers and providers can benefit from the same or similar high-quality data and can work together to provide the best possible services to patients with COVID-19 while avoiding overloading the healthcare system. The key is to use combined payer, clinical, and social data plus technology such as telehealth and artificial intelligence (AI). Payer Perspective on COVID-19 The overriding concern for payers during the COVID-19 crisis is the need to support member health. During an
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HHS Announces Investments for STAR HIE Program to Support State and Local Public Health Agencies
What You Should Know: - HHS Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) will award up to five 5 cooperative
agreements under the Strengthening
the Technical Advancement and Readiness of Public Health Agencies via Health Information Exchange
(STAR HIE) Program. The U.S. Department of Health and
Human Services (HHS) today issued a Notice of Funding Opportunity to expand and
accelerate innovative
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Using HIEs to Prepopulate Forms Improves Public Health Disease Reporting, Study Finds
What You Should Know: - A new study from Regenstrief Institute and Indiana University shows that using electronic health information exchanges (HIE) to prepopulate forms for notifiable disease reports increases reporting and completeness of information. - The system extracts data from the Indiana Health Information Exchange and fills in the information fields on the official state reporting form. - The form is delivered to an ambulatory care clinic using the HIE network, acting as a
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ONC, The Sequoia Project Continue RCE Efforts to Support Nationwide HIE
The Sequoia Project, selected by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC) as the Recognized Coordinating Entity (RCE) to support the implementation of the Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement (TEFCA), today celebrated program achievements and ONC’s announcement of the availability of approximately $1.1M of funding to continue the public-private engagement for a second year.Progress to DateIn 2019, ONC chose non-profit The Sequoia Project, to be the RCE following a
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Nebraska Health Information Initiative Rolls Out Statewide COVID-19 Dashboard
What You Should Know: - NEHII, the statewide health information exchange for Nebraska, in conjunction with Intersystems, KPI Ninja, and Nextgate, has generated a COVID-19 dashboard to support statewide COVID-19 data collection and reporting. - COVID-19 dashboard provides real-time laboratory data and hospital bed management for accurate monitoring and case reporting. To help the state of Nebraska accurately track COVID-19 cases and test results, the Nebraska Health Information
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VA, DoD Launches Joint Health Information Exchange to Securely Exchange Records
What You Should Know: - VA and DoD launch joint health information exchange (HIE), allowing bidirectional sharing of health records with community healthcare partners. - The benefits of the new joint HIE capability are currently available to all VA and DOD care providers and to all participating community partners. - The joint HIE capability honors patient consent so that health records of patients who opt out of sharing will not be exchanged through the HIE. On April 18, the
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HIMSS Names The 6 Most Influential Women in Health IT
HIMSS names
Iris P. Frye, Kim Garriott, Dr. Lucienne Ide, Eva Karp, RN-BC, Dr. Geeta Nayyar,
and Tressa Springmann as the most influential women in health IT. This week, HIMSS announced its Most Influential Women in Health IT, an annual recognition celebrating women striving to harness the power of information technology to drive healthcare transformation. The award winners will be honored at HIMSS20 in Orlando next month and will join other innovators, leaders, and entrepreneurs at the
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UNC Health Care Adopts CarePort’s Care Coordination Platform Across 12 Hospitals
- CarePort, a provider of care coordination and management solutions is collaborating with North Carolina’s statewide health information exchange, NC HealthConnex.- The partnership allows for all 12 hospitals in the UNC Health Care system to improve efficiency and ultimately improve patient outcomes as the not-for-profit health system builds a more effective care coordination program between hospitals.- CarePort’s platform provides real-time patient data, alerts for critical patient events (e.g.
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