The Metropolitan Chicago Healthcare Council (MCHC), Microsoft, CSC and HealthUnity Corporation recently held a Twitter session detailing the development of the MetroChicago Health Information Exchange, which is touted as the largest metropolitan HIE in the nation, serving more than 9.4 million people.

[See also: Chicago to develop largest metropolitan HIE in the nation.]

The session highlighted some important aspects of the HIE, including participation requirements, outcomes measurement and plans for sustainability.

These are the top five takeaways from the Twitter chat:

1. Does one need an EHR to participate? According to CSC, "providers involved in the HIE do not need to have an EHR, as there is a browser-based clinical viewer that they can use to see the clinical information available from the HIE." This portal will be enabled by Microsoft HealthVaut message center, which will allow "patients to receive encrypted email from participating providers," Microsoft officials said.
2. What is the HIE's sustainability plan? Participating organizations will fund the HIE, as opposed to short-term grant funding from government or other outside entities, officials said. To date, there are about 64 hospitals that are participating, said MCHC, which exceeded their initial expectations, but the goal is 100 percent. "Grants are not a long-term sustainability plan," said Terri Jacobsen, director of HIE at MCHC. However, she added, grant funding was used to support the development of the HIE plan.
3. How will the HIE measure whether it is meeting its goals? MCHC says they will be measured in three key areas: improvements in quality of care, reduced costs and improved population health. These are all areas that stand to see a boost by giving providers at the point of care a unified view of patient medical data, said officials. The HIE solution also provides the capabilities to gather this data and analyze it to produce the desired outcomes, added CSC.
4. What is the role of cloud computing technology in the HIE? "The role of cloud computing in the HIE is that the cloud provides infrastructure on demand, security of patient data, and faster speed to value for hospitals and patients," CSC officials said. "[The] cloud also provides a better cost profile for cyclical business, like flu season when use is high and summer when use is low," they added.  "[Our] advanced capabilities in software-as-a-service cloud delivery platforms, will bring technology to deliver better information for better decisions to improve patient care for MCHC and residents of the Greater Chicago Metropolitan area," said Mark Roman, president of CSC's Healthcare Group.
5. When will the HIE be up and running? "We anticipate the early adopters will be live by the end of 2011," said Roman. Officials said the first two use cases to be deployed will be Clinical Summary – Emergency Department (ED) Linking. After this initial roll-out, the goal is to move to medication and allergies, public health reporting and diagnostic results delivery, said Jacobsen.

[See also: ONC plans to develop patient consent for exchange.]