WARWICK, RI – MEDfx Corporation and Community Health Alliance, Inc., a Richmond, Va.-based not-for-profit organization, have announced a partnership to create a Virginia statewide health information exchange (HIE).
The new HIE, ConnectVirginia, will provide the exchange of vital clinical data between authorized healthcare providers across the state to improve access to health information and ultimately improve the health of all Virginians, according to a statement issued by the two groups. Community Health Alliance was awarded a contract from the Virginia Department of Health in October 2011 to establish and operate Virginia's statewide HIE.
[See also: HIE lessons of two states.]
"The combination of software and services from MEDfx will allow ConnectVirginia to provide a full range of HIE capabilities from one-way secure messaging to bi-directional query/retrieve," said Sandy McCleaf, executive director of ConnectVirginia. "We are fortunate to have MEDfx as our technology partner for the ConnectVirginia project. Our combined efforts will ensure that Virginians are provided a secure, private, state-of-the-art HIE service that will advance care coordination within our state."
ConnectVirginia's first initiative, Direct Messaging, will launch on Feb. 17 and will enable a secure one-way "push" of clinical information, according to officials of the organizations. With Direct, enrolled clinicians within the Commonwealth will be able to send secure messages to, and receive secure messages from, other enrolled clinicians.
Information of all types may be exchanged, including continuity of care documents (CCDs), lab results, dictated reports, discharge summaries and scanned documents, among others. ConnectVirginia Direct Messaging is built upon the Direct Project national standards and specifications which provide the necessary security and encryption mechanisms to enable providers to securely share a patient's medical history.
[See also: HIE on the upswing.]
Later this year, ConnectVirginia will onboard certified HIE participants to ConnectVirginia, giving each certified HIE the ability to query other ConnectVirginia Certified HIEs for records about a specific patient. If a patient has opted-in with ConnectVirginia, a provider may retrieve, or "pull," health information from other providers in an easy-to-use, standardized CCD. ConnectVirginia will also leverage the MEDfx infrastructure to join the Nationwide Health Information Network and other initiatives to improve quality of care.
"We are proud to be a part of the ConnectVirginia initiative," said Colin Barry, CEO of MEDfx. "The Commonwealth greatly benefits from the vision and leadership of CHA and ConnectVirginia stakeholders. We look forward to working with CHA to set the standard for data exchange and connectivity among the clinicians in the Commonwealth of Virginia."
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